A CAMPAIGN to double the size of the Millennium Town Park will continue, the St Helier Constable has vowed – despite the States backing plans for a new town primary school on the land in question.
Simon Crowcroft said he was disappointed to see Members back an amendment to the Bridging Island Plan from Deputy Rob Ward to safeguard part of the former Jersey Gas site for education.
And the Constable said that if he was successful in retaining his seat in June’s general election he would seek to get the next Assembly to rescind the decision in favour of expanding the park.
Accusing Deputy Ward and his Reform Jersey colleagues of ‘backing the wrong horse’, Mr Crowcroft rejected the notion that doubling the Millennium Town Park could still be achieved even if a primary school was built.
Mr Crowcroft said: ‘Everyone I’ve spoken to values the existing park but recognises that it is too small, and already bursting at the seams in the summer, even without the thousand new homes that are planned for the area.
‘It’s misleading to say that there could still be a meaningful increase in the size of the park if a school was to be built.
‘This part of St Helier is a heartland for Reform Jersey and I’m actually quite surprised that they don’t recognise the fact that electors want a bigger park.’
Maintaining his previous description of the issue as ‘a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’ for St Helier, the Constable conceded he would be obliged to withdraw his proposition supporting the doubling of the park’s footprint. The proposition had been due for debate at the end of April, but Assembly rules prevent an already approved vote being challenged within three months.
Mr Crowcroft said he would not be dropping the matter and pledged to make it part of his forthcoming bid for re-election when the Island goes to the polls in June.
He said: ‘It’s too important to let this go – it will be a major plank of my election campaign, and if I am re-elected I will be coming back to the Assembly later in the year and seeking to have this decision rescinded.’
The Constable’s proposition backed the vision of Andium Homes to maximise the benefit of the park for the community, particularly for children, and would serve as one of Jersey’s most significant moves to achieve urban regeneration.
‘Young people would get far more from an enlarged park than they would from a primary school, which would be closed every evening and at weekends,’ he said.
