- Officials heckled as they defend development in stormy meeting at Town Hall
- Islanders seemed to leave the meeting unconvinced by plans for the proposed Jersey International Finance Centre
- Around 2,000 Islanders attended a protest against it on Sunday
- Is Esplanade vote off? States may now not be asked to agree to hold a binding referendum
- Gallery – see images from the meeting below
A STORMY public meeting held to discuss the proposed Jersey International Finance Centre ended in heckling and Islanders demanding more answers from the States and the developers behind the scheme.
Last night a panel which included Chief Minister Ian Gorst and Jersey Development Company managing director Lee Henry addressed the audience over the controversial development.
Jersey Finance chairman Robert Christensen, who was also on the panel, described the finance centre as ‘a once-in-a-century opportunity’ to revitalise St Helier, adding that it would create a finance hub similar to those found at Canary Wharf and Wall Street.
But the scores of Islanders in attendance at the Town Hall seemed to leave the meeting unconvinced, with many hands still raised at the end of the meeting pushing for more questions to be asked.
Following speeches from the panel, an often tense question-and-answer session took place, which meeting chairman Constable Steve Pallett at times struggled to control.
The audience called into question many aspects of the development, including its design, the strain it will put on public parking, the environmental impact, the necessity of further office space, a lack of transparency over the project, a lack of financial figures proving it will be a success and the risk to public finances.
Senator Gorst began the meeting by lending his support to Treasury Minister Alan Maclean and said that the delivery of the six-building development on a ‘building-by-building basis’ would reduce risk.
He also said: ‘We live in a competitive world and cannot be complacent. The quality of our infrastructure is an important competitive factor.’
Senator Maclean said that he fully supported the concerns of the 2,000 people who formed a human chain around the Esplanade car park last Sunday in protest against the development.
He admitted that the States ‘may not have explained matters clearly enough’ but said that ‘misinformation had incited anger, objection and disbelief’ about the project.
Mr Christensen argued that a centralised financial services area could attract jobs and businesses to Jersey in the same way as similar districts in New York, London and Dubai – where, he pointed out, more than 17,000 jobs had been created in just ten years.
He told the audience that the board of Jersey Finance, which promotes the finance industry, supported the development because it would be ‘a centre of focus’ for financial services in the Island.
‘At present our financial services offices are scattered throughout St Helier, but there is evidence from other financial centres that the creation of a hub helps to generate greater business,’ he added.
‘You see evidence of this at places like the City of London, Canary Wharf, Wall Street and Central District in Hong Kong.’
He added that if local companies relocated to the International Finance Centre, it would provide the States of Jersey with a once-in-a-century opportunity to revitalise St Helier by redeveloping vacated premises.
St Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft also backed the development, which he had previously opposed, and encouraged Islanders to work with the developers ‘to get the best deal for St Helier’.
He also warned the audience: ‘If we turn our back on financial services, how are we going to pay the bills in the future for our ageing population?’
The question-and answer-session began with Islander David Crocker voicing his concerns about the architectural style of the project, labelling it ‘a glass ghetto’.
He pointed out that there was no granite in the design and he called for the JDC to ‘put some Jersey’ into the project – a sentiment which was backed by the audience.
Further criticism of the centre’s design came from St Helier resident John Baker, who held up a placard showing a picture of the proposed development captioned ‘The Eyesore on the Seashore’.
Towards the end of the meeting Ben Ludlam, a director of property company C Le Masurier Ltd, launched a scathing attack on the Jersey Development Company, claiming that it had not properly put together its masterplan for the development and that there was uncertainty over road planning.
Mr Pallett called the meeting to an end after it had already overrun for 20 minutes with the audience chanting for it to be extended further.
THE States may not be asked to agree to hold a binding referendum over the Jersey International Finance Centre next week, after Deputy Montfort Tadier moved to change his own proposal about the controversial project.
The backbencher had previously asked the States to call for a suspension of the Jersey Development Company’s work until the outcome of the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel’s report was known.
He had also called for a referendum on whether the scheme to build six large offices on the Esplanade car park should go ahead at all.
However, after the JDC announced it had secured its first tenant for part of the first building of the project, Deputy Tadier changed his proposition, which is due to be debated on Tuesday.
If approved following the changes, the proposition would still seek to halt work on the JIFC until the CSSP report is published, but instead of holding a referendum, the Council of Ministers would need to lodge a proposition for debate about the JIFC plans for the approval of the Assembly.
Deputy Tadier said that the protest on Sunday, in which around 2,000 people gathered at the Esplanade car park to oppose the JDC’s project, showed the high level of public interest.
He added that the amendment made sense politically, as it had more chance of succeeding than his suggested referendum.
‘The message I am trying to send to the public is that I do not believe it is too late to change things,’ he added.
‘I still think there are big questions that need to be answered and I hope that the States see that it is quite reasonable for the scrutiny report, which is imminent, to come out first.
‘I think it would be foolhardy not to wait.
‘I do not think the States would have gone for a referendum.
‘Politically it is more viable to do things this way.
‘The key thing is to get States Members to take ownership of the project.’
JERSEY’S favourite farmer recently released a new song, criticising the proposed Jersey International Finance Centre.
Hedley Le Maistre’s latest tune, Office Town, laments the direction in which St Helier is going, with lines such as: Go on obliterate the view, let’s have another block or two.
‘Let’s just rename St Helier ‘Office Town’.
