The proposal, which will be reviewed by the Planning Committee at their monthly meeting this week, features 2,000sqm of surface area ‘to cater for all user preferences and abilities’ as well as a bowl, rails, benches, ledges and platforms. A second skatepark has also been planned for La Collette Gardens.
The planning officer’s report on the Les Quennevais project says that there were 283 public comments about the scheme – 263 in support and 20 against.
It added that the facility would be monitored by CCTV, floodlit and that two nearby changing rooms would be converted into public toilets, and an adjoining community space created.
The report said: ‘The proposal would deliver an inclusive sporting facility that would provide a valuable, inclusive, community resource for the Island for people of all ages. The scheme has been subject to preapplication discussions prior to submission, and, following submission, revisions to the design and additional information has been submitted and a further public consultation undertaken.’
It adds: ‘The scheme has been assessed in terms of design, noise, light emissions, ecology, welfare, security, ground conditions, access and amenity, and found to be acceptable in all regards.’
The application was submitted by the Infrastructure, Housing and Environment Department
In January 2018 an existing facility for skaters, rollerbladers, bike and scooter riders at the New North Quay was closed by the site’s owners, Ports of Jersey, after youths were caught throwing concrete blocks and bikes into the adjacent St Helier Marina and climbing onto the roof of the Maritime Museum. Seven years earlier a video emerged online of a young Islander leaping from the skatepark’s fence onto the top of a moving articulated truck as it left the former Ferryspeed depot. Ports of Jersey reopened the park soon after, pending the creation of a new facility elsewhere, and put £500,000 forward towards its development.
It was originally hoped that a new park could be in place by Autumn 2019, but the completion date was repeatedly pushed back, with an application for Les Quennevais finally being submitted in February through the government’s £1.2 million New Skateparks Project.
Earlier this year, Senator Steve Pallett, who previously held political responsibility for sport, said he was seeking a further £1 million to invest in existing facilities in St Ouen and St John, in the east of the Island and further ‘satellite’ facilities in and around St Helier.
Meanwhile, a plan to turn two disused netball courts next to the FB Fields athletics track pavilion into two five-a-side football pitches is also due to go before the Planning Committee. The application has been submitted by Muratti footballer James Scott of JS Fives.
However, planning officers have recommended that those plans be refused, stating that the change would constitute an ‘intensification’ of the site and saying that it would lead to increased pressure on parking spaces.
The planning meeting is scheduled for Thursday at 9.30am at St Paul’s Centre. Members of the public are welcome to attend.
