CONSTABLES should remain at the heart of Jersey politics – but the parish system must prioritise modernisation if it is to thrive in the future, the Island’s new senior Connétable has said.
St John Constable Andy Jehan was recently unanimously chosen to lead the Comité des Connétables, a body which serves as the collective voice of the parish heads.
St Martin Constable Karen Shenton-Stone was elected vice-chair.
Although the immediate task of the Comité will be to help its four new members bed in, Mr Jehan said that responding to the findings of the ad hoc ‘Parishes and Government Review Panel’ would be top of its in-tray pile.
The 101-page Scrutiny review, led by Senatorial poll-topper Helen Miles when she was a backbencher in the last Assembly, made a number of meaty recommendations designed to future-proof Jersey’s devolved system of parochial administration, including developing a new law around Parish Assemblies, building stronger volunteer ‘Community Support Teams’ and reforming the rates system.
Asked if the new Comité would accept all 29 of the recommendations, Mr Jehan said it was “too early” to speak on their behalf, but noted that a lot of them “just make common sense, and I’m sure we’ll support those”, while “there are others which will require more detailed work”.
Mr Jehan said that a workshop would be held “to help us to form an initial response, and then we will devise an action plan”.
At a broader level, asked if he felt the 12 Constables still had an important role to play in the States Assembly, he said: “More than ever. I believe that we are the most connected to the community and therefore we have the ability to take the parishes’ voice to the floor of the Assembly.
“And I think that if we embrace some of the review’s recommendations around Parish Assemblies, for example, we can actually strengthen our position.
Mr Jehan added that the parishes should strive to play a greater role in Island life.
He said: “We have facilities and we have people, and it’s about harnessing those volunteers and utilising our parish halls and our community centres to ensure that we deliver services at the grassroots.
“Here in St John, for example, we run seated keep-fit classes, we provide play areas, we support youth workers, we hold diamond and golden-age clubs, and everything in between. Other parishes do the same and St Clement is the model in terms of community support.”
Mr Jehan added that, in his personal view, Constables should not be ministers, despite himself being the last Infrastructure Minister – something he said he had stepped up to do because he had the experience and skill set to deliver.
Listing other priorities of the new Comité, Mr Jehan said that increasing the number of honorary police officers and improving communication with parishioners, particularly to boost attendance at Parish Assemblies, were high up the list.
He added: “In St John, we have introduced things like book and puzzle exchanges, so that we can become a hub for our community, and we see that the parish hall getting used for a whole range of things.
“We want to see that across the Island, where people are welcome into parish halls as centres of their community. There is a strong desire among the 12 Constables to make a positive difference.”
