Stewart Newton, whose formal election will be confirmed at the Trust’s AGM later this month, called for government to take the initiative in paving the way for a proper management plan for St Ouen’s Bay where the Trust has a significant landowning.
‘I believe that the best buyer for it would be the government because of contingent liabilities attached to the restoration. If the government decided they weren’t prepared to do it, we would have to see whether we could put a group together to buy it but it wouldn’t be the best solution for the Island or for getting the thing done and dusted.
‘We are now getting to a critical stage. I’m not saying that the National Trust should own it. What I’m saying is that it needs sorting and converting into something which can be used and enjoyed by the whole Island.
‘Nobody knows what to do at the moment – it’s a big hole,’ he said.
Mr Newton, who will take up the presidency of the Trust after a period as a member of its executive committee, is to lead a campaign to increase the organisation’s membership from its present level of around 3,000 individuals.
He said that they would try to increase to double-digits the percentage of Islanders involved in the Trust, either as members or as volunteers, both to help attract further financial support and to enable it become increasingly influential as it seeks to protect the Island’s environment.
Mr Newton also called for a ‘change in the conversation’ between developers and conservationists so that historic buildings were routinely accommodated within St Helier developments.
‘There are a lot of developments which have at their core a listed building and I think, as we’ve shown at Pitt Street, that we can help deal with that. We acquired the site, we developed it and it’s enabled the Co-op and the hotel to develop that area,’ he said.
