THE owners of a local farm shop have received public support for plans that involve extending their opening hours.
Jon and Jenny Hackett, who own Brooklands Farm in St Brelade, are applying to extend their approved opening times in order to ‘provide full-time employment for two people as well as cater for customers’ request for more opening hours’.
Brooklands Farm’s pigs, poultry and shop along Route des Genets is a familiar sight for many Islanders. It offers a variety of Genuine Jersey products which are handmade in-house in a purpose-built butchery and commercial kitchen.
However, planning restrictions on the opening hours mean that the farm shop is currently closed on Mondays, closes at 2pm on the remaining weekdays, and 4pm on Saturday.
If their planning application is approved, the farm shop would stay open until 5pm from Monday to Saturday. Their Sunday opening hours, 10am to 2pm, would remain unchanged.
The planning application has received more than 40 public comments, many of which praise the convenience of having the shop open later for those who work typical office hours.
One Islander said: ‘It is businesses like this that make the Island special and they should be encouraged. Current opening hours are restrictive and allowing them to open within most normal business parameters after having proved they have a viable business would be sensible.’
Another added that they ‘support this change in opening hours as this farm shop provides Genuine Jersey produce and this will allow us to have the option to visit the shop at more convenient times, due to work commitments’.
Submissions from others praised the ‘local’ element of the farm shop, with one Islander explaining: ‘This island needs to support our local farmers or we risk losing them altogether… This farm shop brings people the best quality of local produce and it should be as easily available as the imported poorer-quality food that somehow is available at all hours.
‘Please allow them the opportunity to compete fairly and increase the opening hours for the benefit of all Islanders and the local economy.’
