Potential for Fort's progress - Jersey Evening Post

In an Island in which space is at such a premium, it is astonishing that the prime site overlooking town should be occupied by a shabby leisure centre and a swimming pool that has been boarded up for nearly a decade.

That Fort Regent is back on the agenda again is to be welcomed, but cautiously. There have been a great number of reports and initiatives, of steering groups and committees over the last ten years. It has to be said that for all the talk of ‘visions for progress’, for all the mountainous consultants’ documents and for all the consultation, none of them has achieved anything at all.

For that reason, Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf was right, a fortnight ago, to describe the state of the fort as ‘an embarrassment’. It is not just a blot on the skyline, but also a blot on the reputations of successive committees, ministers and States Assemblies who have failed to get to grips with this once-in-a-generation opportunity.

Similarly, the head of the Chamber of Commerce David Warr was right, last week, to highlight the possibilities for the redevelopment of the site as a way of rejuvenating the Island economy. Quite aside from the direct benefits in terms of construction contracts and the possibility of attracting visitors, a significant project could lift the gloom brought by our economic troubles.

With all of the money being pumped into various initiatives – and it is right here to praise the Advance to Work scheme in particular – it must also be right to consider that a timely redevelopment of Fort Regent could reap dividends financially, socially, architecturally, in health terms – and also in providing some welcome good news.

For those living in town, or for tourists, the fort is the defining building on our skyline. And sitting as it does above St Helier, plainly visible from the approaches to the east or west, members of the public and visitors can hardly ignore it.

But, somehow, politicians have been managing to do so for quite some time. That should change.