PROPOSALS to build a 50-metre firing range for the States police have been approved, despite objections from two shooting clubs.
The Planning Committee unanimously voted in favour of the plans this week but urged the force to communicate with the Jersey Rifle Association and the Crabbé Clay Pigeon Shooting Club, who raised concerns about operational arrangements at the Crabbé Range, where the range will be constructed.
The designs were put forward to enable States police officers to conduct specialised firearms training in the Island, rather than having to go abroad.
The current ranges at Crabbé above Grève de Lecq bay were not deemed appropriate for the training and so an application was submitted to build a 50-metre firing range, which would sit between two of the other ranges currently in operation – the 600-yard range and the clay pigeon range.
The proposed range is designed around a natural embankment in order for it to fit in with its surrounding environment, the application said.
Trinity Constable Philip Le Sueur, who chairs the Planning Committee, said the scheme was being approved based on its ‘planning merits’.
‘It is not our place to decide who uses it, when the operation of the site is not our concern,’ he said.
However, he added that the States police should liaise with the clubs who used the range to ease their concerns.
David Curtis, chair of the Crabbé Clay Pigeon Shooting Club, raised safety concerns over whether the club and the police might end up shooting at the same time.
He said that he ‘could not support the application’ until he was given clarification over the effect of the new range on the existing ones.
Richard Benest, vice president of the Jersey Rifle Association, echoed these thoughts and said it had not been established whether the new police range would affect the neighbouring ranges. He added that there were safety worries and a ‘ricochet hazard’ due to the design of the new range.
However, a member of the States police involved in the design said that the club could shoot at the same time in certain instances.
Chris Thomas, chief firearms instructor for the States police, said that police training times were planned a year in advance and never run on weekends – therefore it was ‘unlikely’ that training would interfere with the neighbouring clubs.
He added that he was happy to talk with both clubs and would be flexible with training times to avoid any falling out.
