Peter Bastian, Jersey Pétanque Club secretary
ALTHOUGH reluctant to discuss how option 1 would impact the Jersey Pétanque Club, honorary secretary Peter Bastian did concede that if the school was to be built on Les Quennevais playing fields, it would present ‘considerable problems’ for his sport.
He added: ‘Parking is a major concern under the proposals.
‘Every Wednesday afternoon we hold formal competitions, and at the weekends as well. We also encourage all our members to use the terrains informally.
‘With that in mind, we see the issues around parking as our major concern.’
Barry Cameron, Jersey Cycling Association secretary
UNDER Education, Sport and Culture’s proposals, the Frank Machon cycle circuit, which was purpose-built in 1984, would be halved in size.
Describing the course as ‘much-loved and well-used’, Jersey Cycling Association secretary Barry Cameron believes that the suggested alterations would effectively ‘nullify the value of the track.’
‘It is incredibly popular with competitors for most of the season,’ he explained.
‘We ride up there every other Tuesday and Thursday night, and on Sundays as well. It hosts over 40 races a year and the changes would definitely have a detrimental effect on people participating.
Option 1
Building the new school on the south-east corner of Les Quennevais sports field – currently the site of tennis courts, a car park, cricket wicket and nets, changing facilities, nursery, rugby pitch and two football pitches – would mean it could be constructed on land already owned by the States.
Traffic access would be through Don Farm estate, probably with a new road behind the sports complex and one-way system. The consultation document states: ‘While there would be an overall loss of sports facilities, the site could be reconfigured so that most of the current activities could be retained.’
Option 2
A collection of small fields south of the Airport and Rue Carrée was suggested in 2013 as a potential site for a new school but the main issue is the loss of agricultural fields and open space between Red Houses and the Airport.
The site is in the Green Zone in the Island Plan but the policy allows for ‘elements of significant public infrastructure such as a new secondary school.’ The aim would be to maintain some of the ‘green lung’ aspect of the site by locating the school to the southern boundary of the land.
Option 3
‘It is getting harder and harder to organise races on public roads because of traffic increasing dramatically. It’s much safer racing on the track but if they cut the course to just under 1 km it effectively nullifies its value.
‘It was designed to promote free-flowing track racing and by cutting it in half you shorten each of the straight sections and it may make it more dangerous.’
He added: ‘The Youth Academy also use the track for racing and training every Wednesday night and beyond the JCA, the general public use the track to jog, walk their dogs, or help kids learn to cycle,
‘People would adapt to the smaller circuit but it is unnecessary – after the success of the Island Games, we should be building more facilities. We produce a lot of Island Games and Commonwealth Games athletes but it will become much harder to do so if facilities are taken away.’
Joel Camp, Les Mielles Tennis Club head coach
HEAD Coach at Les Mielles Tennis Club Joel Camp says he has been left frustrated by the timing of the consultation document – but he does urge restraint until after the sports have met with ESC tomorrow night.
‘We are frustrated because we have been in talks with the States to renew our lease at the club and this hadn’t previously been mentioned,’ he said.
‘However, I don’t think all the information is on the table at present … the States have spent a lot of money renovating the facilities recently, which included our tennis courts, and I’m not sure this is a genuine option.
‘I think it is easy to instantly react to the proposals at face value but we’ll be looking to attend the upcoming meetings, hear what they have got to say, and then we will offer our reaction based on what is presented to us.’
Gavin Carter, Jersey Croquet Club secretary
THE only public place to play croquet on the Island appears to be under threat, with the current Jersey Croquet Club site labelled as ‘proposed tennis’ in the plans released by Education, Sport and Culture earlier this month.
Secretary Gavin Carter says the lawns are of international standard and warns that if his club is forced to move, it could cause major disruptions for the sport in Jersey.
‘The fact the map doesn’t illustrate where we would move to is a bit disconcerting because our croquet area is the size of eight tennis courts, and we are about to sign a new lease with the States.
‘Until we hear what they say about where they are planning on moving our lawns, it’s hard to give more detailed opinions.
‘Our lawns are international standard and it would take a few years to move them and get them back to that standard – that would be a concern for me.’
However, Carter believes that there needs to be a wider debate on the future site of Les Quennevais School.
‘I can see it needs doing and I guess, wherever you move it, people will be unhappy,’ he added.
‘For me, it’s a bit of a wider debate and it needs to be looked at in terms of the overall Island plan – they want bigger schools, we need bigger schools and everything else will be impacted.
‘However, of the three options, even looking at it from a non-sport perspective option 1 still seems least favourable, just because of the problems associated with creating new roads through Don Farm.
‘We are hoping that they will go for one of the other two options.’
Ed Daubeney, Jersey Hockey Association
WITH plans in place – and fundraising efforts intensifying – to construct a Jersey Hockey clubhouse to the north of Les Quennevais’ synthetic surface, the development outlined in option 1 has come as somewhat of a surprise for JHA president Ed Daubeney.
He said: ‘The concern that Jersey Hockey has is that option 1, while not directly affecting the pitch, would clearly affect Les Quennevais sports fields and Centre as a whole.
‘There would be increased congestion and instead of space being dedicated to sport, the site would become very busy and, as such, congested – and difficult for all sports to operate, not just hockey.
‘From a hockey perspective, we are looking to develop as a sport over the next few years, have a clubhouse and get more visiting teams over to the Island.
‘We want to drive additional traffic to the Les Quennevais site and clearly, making it even busier by constructing a school will be detrimental to that aim.’
Daubeney added: ‘To be fair to ESC, they have informed us of what their plans are, invited us to a meeting on Wednesday, and asked us to actively participate. We received that invite as the plans were revealed so I don’t think they have been particularly unreasonable.’
Neville Davidson, Jersey Football Association chief executive officer
JERSEY FA boss Neville Davidson claims his sport can’t afford to lose any more pitches and is disappointed to see that two of the three options set out by ESC would directly affect football on the Island.
‘That seems like the obvious option. We can’t afford to have any more pitches taken away.
‘Option 3 suggests taking away St Brelade Football Club – that is a fantastic facility and it would be a real shame to disrupt that.
‘So option 3 is out for us but we’re also dead against Les Quennevais sports centre. Sometimes it is too easy for a decision to be made to take away a pitch but following the success of the Island Games we certainly shouldn’t be taking away sports venues.
‘There have got to be other places – I’m all for improving education for our children but it is too easy to take pitches away.’
Kevin Lemasney, Jersey Rugby Association chair
JRA chairman Kevin Lemasney believes the need for a new Les Quennevais School building provides sports clubs and associations with the perfect opportunity to review their usage of the sports centre in the west of the Island.
‘From an overall sport perspective it’s a tremendous opportunity that sport becomes an integral part of these plans, which would benefit the students and the wider community,’ he said.
‘We shouldn’t look at these plans as just losing one sports field, we should be discussing how we can use this opportunity to increase access to sport.
‘It’s a great opportunity to push for multiple use pitches – one thing that may be explored, might be a 3G or 4G pitch; that would be a great opportunity.
‘That’s the importance of this consultation phase – how can we accommodate these sports to ensure a good future for all?
‘I’m less interested in each sport doing their own thing because you get underused facilities. I take a much more collective view that we should try and maximise the number of people who would benefit from any changes.’
On the potential loss of facilities, Lemasney, who said he was delighted that ESC had approached him to discuss rugby’s views on the proposals, continued: ‘Of course I don’t want to lose facilities without replacing them elsewhere but we have to look at this in a flexible way.
‘If each individual sport takes an insular view, they lose things – we have to see this as an opportunity to enhance the sporting offering at Les Quennevais for the wider community.’
Chris Minty, Jersey Cricket Board chief executive
IF the States of Jersey were to proceed with plans to move Les Quennevais School to the current sports fields, the Island would lose one of its grass cricket wickets – a venue which has often been used to host International Cricket Council matches in the past.
JCB chief executive officer Chris Minty believes that option 1 should not even have been included in the public consultation document.
Minty said: ‘My view is that because of the effect on a lot of sports and the facilities, option 1 shouldn’t be an option – it’s as simple as that.
‘In the consultation document they talk about taking facilities away but there is no talk of relocating or reinstating those facilities.
‘You could also say that the consultation document doesn’t make it clear exactly what will be removed. It says there will be one sports field fewer but what they fail to acknowledge is that a piece of grass can be used for two or even three different sports.’
On Jersey cricket’s current use of Les Quennevais he continued: ‘Pitch 1 is one of the grounds we have used for international events … we’ve actually used both but pitch 1 has been used this year.
‘It is on our list of facilities to quote when we approach the ICC about hosting tournaments.
‘The loss of any facility is a serious concern. We use both pitches throughout the summer on a regular basis for domestic cricket, on both the weekends and week nights.
‘The relocation of some facilities nearer to cricket pitch 2 could also cause issues. It could become dangerous having different sports being played within such a close proximity.’
Minty added that the JCB intended on attending tomorrow’s meeting at the current school site to hear ESC’s explanations.
Ali Wade, Jersey Softball Association president
JERSEY softball president Ali Wade says her sport, which has the use of two pitches at Les Quennevais over the summer months, is strongly against option 1 and describes the plans as ‘completely unacceptable’.
‘We feel it is totally unacceptable, particularly when the States are encouraging sport through their Fit for the Future strategy,’ she explained.
‘To take away facilities is contradictory. It will be at least three years while the construction is carried out, during which time we won’t be able to play. Even if the plans were completed there is no explanation as to where softball would fit in.’
She added: ‘They discuss having two general pitches, which means softball will really have to fight its corner to get any access or usage. We have to get in really quickly for the year ahead to get usage of the pitches at the moment but it would become a real struggle.
‘We use the pitches twice a week in the summer, we have two or three games every Sunday and we play every Wednesday night as well for the Corporate League. We have hundreds of players and obviously this would affect all of them.’
