A ‘LEAD party’ to run the Les Creux Pavilion at La Moye – which has been empty since its resident bowls club closed down in March 2024 – has been selected.
A panel of independent members and civil servants has chosen the Jersey Community Land Trust to develop and manage the St Brelade facility, which was built in the early 2000s.
Set up by architect Joshua Noad and community project specialist Xanthe Hamilton, the JCLT is a non-profit organisation which seeks to “develop land for the benefit of the community”.
JCLT’s status as ‘party in the lead’ follows an ‘expressions of interest’ process which the Government launched last March.
In September, Infrastructure Minister Andy Jehan said that a preferred bidder had been chosen from 16 expressions of interest, but he remained tight-lipped on who it was until yesterday’s States sitting, when he finally publicly revealed that it was JCLT.
Mr Jehan told Members: “The Jersey Community Land Trust are currently working with Jersey property holdings, and at the moment, they are seeking pre-planning advice on whether or not changes to the use of permissions would be required to deliver their proposals.
“Once that advice has been received, I expect to receive an update on their final proposals, which I understand have been developed following further engagement with the local community.”
Asked about timescales, he added: “I am reluctant to put a timetable on this. I expected the whole process to take three months, and currently we are nine months down the road.
“We are waiting for feedback from our colleagues in Planning and I don’t have a timescale for that. I would certainly hope that this will be concluded in weeks rather than months.”
He continued: “The preferred bidder had plans which wouldn’t have received planning permission which involved two very large structures. We’re talking about a country park in the green zone. But they do have a number of good ideas and I do believe that they have the will and the expertise to deliver.”
He added that Les Creux is widely used, and he hoped that further use of the facility “will start very shortly”.
The JCLT has previously put forward plans for the La Folie Inn site at the Harbour.
