DEBATE about the amount of open space, educational facilities and other amenities available to town residents has been reignited after plans to develop hundreds of new homes were revealed.
St Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft and Deputy Lyndsay Feltham, who represents St Helier Central, spoke out after the government approved a project to build 195 units on the former BOA and Play.com site – now due to be known as Northern Quarter – next to the Grand Marché supermarket opposite the Millennium Town Park.
The majority of the units – 169 – will serve as affordable social housing, which will be managed by Andium Homes, while construction firm ROK will retain the remaining 26 residential units.
Mr Crowcroft, who has been calling for the Millennium Town Park to be doubled in size, said the development made such an expansion ‘even more compelling’, as it would increase the number of people living in the area.
‘I’m reassured that the new development will be in the hands of Andium as they understand the need for a balance between property types and open space,’ he said.
‘The fact that the government want to push forward with this makes the case for doubling Millennium Park even more compelling.’
The Constable’s proposed expansion was contested in March when Deputy Rob Ward, of Reform Jersey, successfully brought an amendment to the Bridging Island Plan to ‘safeguard’ the Jersey Gas site for education facilities if anything was built on it.
Chief Minister Kristina Moore said last month that ‘there [were] ways’ to achieve both the full-scale expansion of the park sought by Mr Crowcroft and Deputy Ward’s calls for improved primary-school facilities in the area.
Commenting on the Northern Quarter scheme, Deputy Feltham – who is also a member of Reform Jersey – said: ‘Obviously any housing development is going to have an impact in terms of infrastructure.
‘We know that a new school provision is required to meet the needs of the community. The concern is where that school might go.’
She added that parking, open space, educational facilities and access to other areas such as the beach were all factors that needed to be considered when building new properties.
‘Ministers need to work collaboratively and listen to the people who live in the area about what the potential impacts of population increases might be and present detailed plans.’
Proposals to develop the site were first put forward in 2015 and turned into a five year saga – which included concerns over the density of the project – that came to a conclusion in 2020, when designers Axis Mason successfully brought the latest application before the Planning Committee.
Andium Homes spokesperson Carl Mavity said: ‘We take comfort in the fact that the scheme has already met the minimum standards of the Planning Department. It is also next to the park for which we have proposed an increase in size. The [latter] matter is being considered by the government.’
Town developments:
– Horizon (Jersey Development Company): 280 one-, two- and three-bedroom waterside apartments and penthouses, a restaurant and retail quarter at the Waterfront.
– Merchants Square (Le Masurier): 149 residential one- and two-bedroom apartments, a restaurant and bar, commercial units and car parking near the Millennium Park.
– Ann Court (Andium Homes): 165 one- and two-bedroom apartments and four commercial units near the Arts Centre
