AN enduring quirk of Island life – which combines both charm and traditional with the swift efficiency of summary justice – wended its way through the rues and chemins of St Ouen yesterday morning.
A Visite Royale occurs in a parish once every six years. The Royal Court – with its red robes and brimless ‘tocques’ – will visit the parish to inspect the parish accounts and will judge on matters relating to public roads and footpaths brought to its attention by the parish officials.
Yesterday, it was the turn of the grey bellies of the northwest to welcome the officials of the Royal Court, led by the Bailiff, Sir Timothy Le Cocq, in his last summer of performing this ancient ritual.
After a special sitting of the court in the Parish Hall, where the Bailiff and Jurats concluded that the parish accounts were in order, a train of limousines and vans, sandwiched between police cars with their blue lights ablaze, visited three places in the parish, where they were asked to rule on encroachments, damaged roads and obstructions.
The first was halfway along a parish public path which connects Rue Militaire to Ville des Marettes.
There Basil Carré, who was one of 14 ‘voyeurs’ invited to represent St Ouen on the day, explained to the tightly gathered ensemble that the parish believed that a privately owned vegetable patch had encroached onto the pathway.
After the path was measured and Attorney General Mark Temple had given his opinion as chief prosecutor that it was, indeed, an encroachment, Advocate Mike Kushner defended the patch on behalf of its non-attendant, and possibly oblivious, owner.
After deliberating in a huddle, the Royal Court reserved its judgment on that matter.
The final two matters were both in the La Robeline area of the parish. At the first, in Verte Rue, the court agreed with the parish that the ruts and bumps on the road surface, caused by the roots of an encroaching tree, was a danger to the public.
The Bailiff, speaking on behalf of the court, said the road should be repaired, with the cost borne by whoever had responsibility for the tree.
Lastly, the Court ordered that the exact ownership of a road, which the parish belonged was theirs, should be determined before a decision on a makeshift barrier across it, blocking off access to a farmstead, should be removed.
And with that, court and parish officials rejoined their fleet of vehicle to go to lunch.
The second Visite Royale of the year takes place in St Clement on Wednesday 20 August.
