MINISTERS have expressed caution over a Reform Jersey request to consider the former Play.com warehouse site as the location for a new town school.
The political party said earlier this week that the site – which is next to the Grand Marché supermarket and is currently earmarked for a development of around 200 homes – could provide ‘the required primary school facilities’ and allow the Millennium Town Park to be extended into the former gasworks site.
Responding to Reform Jersey’s letter, ministers said while they welcomed suggestions for prospective sites for a new town primary school, ‘we must express caution’.
They added: ‘It is important that any work for a new school, as well as being rapid, is properly costed and considered within a wider strategic approach to our overall urban environment.’
The ministerial response was signed by Chief Minister Kristina Moore, Children’s and Education Minister Inna Gardiner, Housing Minister David Warr and Infrastructure Minister Tom Binet.
They say they are committed to ‘new modern’ primary schools, as well as more green space for town residents.
‘We are advancing our plans to achieve this,’ they say, ‘including more green space at the current Springfield School site once it is vacated and we have a new replacement school, and the Gas Place site, as well as elsewhere in town, so that all residents are within easy reach of high-quality outdoor spaces they can enjoy.’
In their letter, Reform Jersey members welcomed the publication of a government report looking into potential sites for two new primary schools in St Helier, which cited Gas Place, Plat Douet and the area between Rouge Bouillon roundabout and Castle Quay as preferred options for development. On the election trail, the party said residents told them they were concerned about the high density of new residential developments in town, that new school facilities were needed in St Helier and that the Millennium Town Park should be extended.
As part of Andium Homes’ Northern Quarter project, which is set to provide 195 new homes, the existing warehouse at the former Play.com site will be demolished.
Ministers stressed that they ‘must also support’ the social housing provider, ‘taking care to avoid detracting from its effective work delivering much-needed homes’.
