ST Helier’s Constable has brought forward a proposition calling on ministers to reconsider building a new town primary school next to the Millenium Town Park.
Simon Crowcroft – who described himself as “passionate about parks” – said the case for “reconsideration of the future uses of the site has only grown stronger” in recent years.
Mr Crowcroft wants the government to assess the “likely impact” of doubling the size of the town park, something he has long advocated for.
He is calling for an assessment of the need for a new town school – which would be built on the former Jersey Gas site – in light of the Island’s changing demographics, including its falling birth rate, and whether current primary schools can meet demand for new school places.
I am passionate about parks, and my belief in their environmental, social, therapeutic and economic value to the whole community has only grown since the pandemic
The site is currently earmarked for a town school with a total of more than £12 million included in the government’s most recent four-year Budget. In August last year, Education Minister Rob Ward said he hoped to have planning permission in place for the school before next year’s election.
Mr Crowcroft, an Assistant Infrastructure Minister, is now asking his ministerial colleague to reconsider government plans.
The Constable’s proposal also asks for:
- Data to be collected regarding the number of households within 400-metres of the site and estimates of those who would benefit from an expanded town park
- An analysis of health and other benefits of the park, “especially” for the “ageing population”
- An assessment of the traffic impacts of a new primary school on St Helier’s road network, including on air quality levels in neighbouring streets
- Up-to-date projections of the cost of building and maintaining the proposed new school
Mr Crowcroft, who has lodged several propositions seeking to increase open space in town over the last quarter of a century, said these proposals aimed to protect “vital areas of green space” from development.
He said: “I make no bones about wanting the Assembly to reconsider the decision taken in the Bridging Island Plan (following amendments brought by two St Helier deputies, and confirmed in the two subsequent Government Plans), to build a new primary school on the only site which could ever be used to extend the Millennium Town Park, for I am passionate about parks, and my belief in their environmental, social, therapeutic and economic value to the whole community has only grown since the pandemic.
“Increasing significantly the size of the Millennium Town Park is one of the pledges I made in my manifesto in June 2022.”
The Constable described his proposal as an “attempt to obtain up-to-date information about the relative benefits and disbenefits of doubling the size of the Millennium Town Park”.
Mr Crowcroft added: “Over the past three years, especially in the light of recent data about the Island’s demographic changes, the importance of play for the young, and exercise for older people, as well as the Island’s financial outlook, the case for a fully objective and comprehensive reconsideration of the future uses of the site has only grown stronger.”
The ring binder “incident”
Millenium Town Park, as it is today, came into existence as a result an accident. Politicians approved £10 million of funding for the project in 2009 – by one vote.
The then Economic Development Minister, former Senator Alan Maclean, said that his ring-binder had been resting on a voting button, meaning he had cast a vote in favour of the proposal rather than against it.
