Senator Steve Pallett, who held political responsibility for sport before quitting to back a vote of no confidence in Chief Minister John Le Fondré, refuted claims that he had halted a decision to build the skate park at Les Quennevais and said it ‘should be the politicians making decisions’.
Yesterday, Deputy Hugh Raymond, who took over from Senator Pallett as Assistant Economic Development Minister, said that he was ‘surprised’ that the skate park at Les Quennevais had been scrapped and that there needed to be far better communication within government.
It is understood that Barclay Harvey, operations director of the Government of Jersey’s sports division, said it was Senator Pallett who asked them to conduct feasibility studies elsewhere, but Mr Pallett insists it was the other way round.
In emails sent to government officers in October and seen by the JEP, Senator Pallett expressed strong concerns after being asked to reconsider the former planning offices at South Hill as a potential site – despite it having been already dismissed.
The Senator said he believed the request was driven by an ‘interjection’ from Jersey Sport and questions about long-term development for the whole of Les Quennevais under the government’s upcoming Sports Facilities Strategy.
Advanced-stage documents have been produced and a completion date in 2021 had already been set for Les Quennevais, following a 2019 public consultation which pointed towards the St Brelade facility as the most-favoured site.
‘I can’t stand by and have anyone suggesting that I was anything but 100% supportive of the skate park project at Les Quennevais,’ said Senator Pallett. ‘I’m really disappointed at anything suggesting that I’ve driven a move away from there.
‘At the end of the day the decision has been made to build it at Les Quennevais. Ecological surveys, environmental surveys, ground surveys had all been done and then all of a sudden South Hill gets thrown at me.
‘All I agreed to was a short, sharp feasibility study looking at South Hill – and I only did that out of respect to the officers, to be honest, to rule it out rather than rule it in. South Hill was ruled out previously … it was fourth or fifth on the site list. I said “fine” to the feasibility study out of respect, but also that I wanted it done quickly, within a month. I was asked to go on a site visit to South Hill on 28 September.’
Earlier this month, former Children’s and Housing Minister Sam Mézec said that he had encountered a number of occasions when senior civil servants attempted to undermine political decision-making – including in one instance when an officer rewrote a section of the Common Strategic Policy, which outlines government’s core aims for the term of office.
Senator Pallett added: ‘I was dismayed by the fact that we were attempting to move away from a political decision to build it at Les Quennevais, but officers behind the scenes wanted a desktop review and wanted to suggest another site. Who makes the decisions here? It should be the politicians making the decisions.
‘It’s alright saying “use another site”, but to go through the consultation process and all the other elements like planning permission, it will knock it back months and months and I can’t see it being delivered in this political term. That, for me, is a non-starter.
‘If anybody is suggesting that this is me, the evidence doesn’t support that. People know how passionate I am to get it finished.’
Catriona McAllister, chief executive of Jersey Sport, said: ‘I can categorically say that Jersey Sport have not requested that the site is moved. In a meeting I was part of with government officers earlier this year, I expressed general operational concerns about how it would work at the back of Les Quennevais and asked about whether it would be floodlit. I asked whether they could put the facility elsewhere at Les Quennevais, rather than out of the way at the back, but at no point was any other site discussed.’
