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Visions of town and country
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How effectively the promises are delivered over the course of its ten-year life remains to be seen, of course, but just to get to this point must count as a major achievement by Environment Minister Freddie Cohen and his departmental staff at Planning, who have worked long and hard to produce a strategy which, broadly speaking, looks balanced and convincing.
Perhaps most importantly, it establishes a central planning philosophy dedicated to keeping development out of the countryside while concentrating on providing both higher-quality and more affordable new homes in a revitalised St Helier.
Linked to an equally important masterplan for the north of town, also overwhelmingly approved by the States this week and aspiring to restore that part of the Island’s capital to its status of 100 years ago as a pleasant and desirable place to live, it is a strategy which offers in theory the best of both worlds.
The coast and countryside need protection, while St Helier needs green spaces and further regeneration to build on some of the improvements of recent years, such as those in Broad Street and Colomberie, as well as to mitigate the planning disaster of the waterfront.
Senator Cohen may fairly claim on that basis to have put in place a set of policies in harmony with general public opinion as well as reflective of the views of the States Assembly after an exhaustive and, indeed, exhausting process of debate.
They include the prospect of 4,000 new homes, including 450 for rent by low-income families and 450 to be sold as discount-price starter homes. The main disappointment, meanwhile, is the narrow failure of the House to extend the extra protection afforded by the Island Plan’s new coastal national park designation to the Plemont headland, controversial development plans for which remain on the drawing board. It may be, though, that the upshot will be to save other such sensitive parts of Jersey’s natural environment in the future.
If the Island Plan was a difficult document to produce, its sheer size and scope makes it also a difficult one to grasp in full detail, although a layman’s guide will no doubt be produced by Planning in due course. Its key principles, however, frame an appealing set of opportunities which, sensitively applied in step with the town masterplan and reinforced by the recent increase in standards of design, can significantly improve both Jersey’s rural and urban environments over the next decade.
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