Describing the Island Plan as a ‘straitjacket’, Keith Beecham said that while it preserved Jersey’s beautiful landscapes, it also prevented sympathetic developments that could allow farmers to continue in business by diversifying the economy.
‘If those revenue opportunities are prohibited, people will leave the land – it won’t be farmed,’ he said.
‘For me, it calls into question the concept of the rural economy. Here in Jersey it is protected through the Island Plan and I’m not suggesting that’s not a good thing but what I am observing is that the plan is a straitjacket that doesn’t seem to be able to accommodate ways of ensuring that the rural economy can continue to prosper and thrive.’
Mr Beecham has recently ended his five-year tenure leading Visit Jersey, which was established in 2015 to succeed Jersey Tourism in promoting the Island as a visitor destination.
In spite of the impact of Covid-19, which he said had effectively created a succession of three consecutive winter seasons for tourism, he was optimistic about the outlook once normal patterns of business had been re-established. But, looking to the future, he called for the current review of the Island Plan to balance preserving the Island’s history and heritage – major planks in Visit Jersey’s marketing campaigns – with the need to allow sustainable rural development.
‘Why does our planning process prevent something happening in the countryside? You could also create a digital hub in the countryside because there’s wonderful connectivity here. I’m not suggesting any one thing is the right thing to do – all I’m suggesting is that we seem to be unable to allow entrepreneurs, and farmers themselves can be entrepreneurs, to use their own assets.
‘Otherwise the consequence is that we will lose farming land because the next generation will say, “I can work in a bank in St Helier without all the hassle of this” – as opposed to, “I’m staying on the land with these other two or three sources of revenue that keep me going as a farmer”,’ he said.
Mr Beecham pointed out that farming played a vital part in the unique atmosphere which visitors enjoy when they came to the Island, a key theme in Visit Jersey’s latest business plan. However, farmers received no reward for their contribution, which was an incidental benefit for tourism.
‘Farmers are actually contributing to the experience of the tourist, so how can we help them raise some funds to keep farming going? Self-catering cottages is the easy one to think of,’ he added.
Mr Beecham, who previously worked for Visit Britain, said that his experience there indicated that it was possible to bring together heritage organisations and the farming community to agree planning criteria which allowed farmers to convert disused buildings to supplement their primary source of income.
‘Let’s respect and preserve the past but also think what our grandchildren will look back on and point to the mark we left on Jersey – what will it be? I don’t have the answer but surely as a generation we have the responsibility to preserve and also add to the past,’ he said.
