By Jennifer Bridge
THE new year brings fresh momentum in the push for transparency among Jersey’s parishes.
St Helier, Trinity, and Grouville already publish their roads committee minutes online, and St John, St Peter and St Saviour have pledged to follow suit.
Meanwhile, the Constable of St Clement has vowed to discuss the initiative with his roads committee later this month, raising hopes for further progress.
A member of the public contacted me after reading one of my recent articles; she admitted she had never heard of a roads committee and was unsure of its role. It’s not surprising, given how opaque aspects of parish administration remain.
For the uninitiated, roads committees comprise three members (five in St Helier) elected by a parish assembly, alongside the Rector and the Constable, who chair the meetings. Jersey is divided into 56 vingtaines. Each vingtaine (or cueillette in St Ouen) elects two roads inspectors to implement the committee’s decisions.
While main roads fall under the Infrastructure Department’s remit, by-roads – chemins vicinaux – are the responsibility of each parish.
The roads committees, operating under the century-old Loi (1914) sur la Voirie, handle everything from potholes and drainage to scaffolding permits and traffic calming measures. However, Grouville’s Roads Committee appears to have gone further, taking on recycling contracts, cemetery upkeep, and refuse management – a mission creep that has piqued my interest.
This curiosity about my home parish began when I noticed Jersey’s recycling rate languishing at 34.8%, compared to Guernsey’s impressive 72%. Why doesn’t Grouville offer kerbside recycling? I was further intrigued to understand the workings of my parish as I observed seemingly inconsistent speed limits, and I started to wonder what priority the parish placed on safer routes to school.
I had heard that Grouville School’s head teacher had set up a safer routes to school focus group in 2021. A freedom-of-information request revealed the matter was discussed in November 2021, but the minutes were exempt. I’ve since filed a follow-up request, hoping to uncover whether any recommendations have been accepted and acted upon.
For many people throughout Jersey, safer routes to school, traffic calming, and cycling infrastructure aren’t abstract policy points but priorities relevant to their daily lives.
Take Sarah (name changed for anonymity), who has written to her parish repeatedly about road safety concerns near her home, the site of multiple serious crashes. Yet, without online access to committee minutes, she has no idea whether her concerns have even been discussed. Frustrated, she is now considering running for election to the roads committee to advocate for change.
As more parishes embrace transparency and accessibility, I hope they’ll also audit their websites for other ways to engage residents, such as improved search functionality.
Some Constables have brushed off my concerns, noting that I’m the only person to request roads committee minutes. But this misses the point: transparency is a cornerstone of trust and community engagement.
For anyone contemplating running for their roads committee, staying informed is crucial. St Peter, St Mary and St Lawrence are due to hold elections by the end of this year, with St John’s next vote scheduled for 2027, having just held elections for a new three-year term. The remaining parishes will host elections in late 2026.
Prospective candidates should remain vigilant, as Constables can convene parish assemblies with just two-days’ notice. The predilection of short notice periods favours incumbents, leaving scant time to campaign and gather supporters.
Despite promising rhetoric on the parish FoI website about fostering public participation: “Access to information can help you participate even more in decision-making and activities that affect you and your family [and] demonstrate how parish services are efficient, delivered with integrity and increasingly designed around you.” My request to publish roads committee details in a uniform manner across all parishes was rejected.
The chair of the Constables’ Committee, Constable Mike Jackson, defended the current decentralised approach, insisting that each parish should follow its own preferences.
This fragmented system is frustrating. It shouldn’t take 25 minutes of navigating broken links and poring over assembly minutes to locate basic information, like committee members’ names and terms of office.
On a positive note, there are beacons of excellence. I attended a packed St John’s Parish Assembly in December 2024 and was struck by the enthusiasm of parishioners and the calibre of candidates stepping up to serve their community.
Furthermore, the Constable of St John, Andy Jehan, has committed to publish his roads committee minutes retrospectively from the date of his election.
Transparency isn’t an optional extra – it’s the bedrock of accountability. By making information accessible, parishes can empower residents to engage with local governance, ask informed questions and hold representatives to account.
It’s time for all parishes to prioritise openness and serve the public with the transparency they deserve.
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Former States Deputy Jennifer Bridge is a non-executive director and part-time teacher. Outside of work, she is known as an experienced chair in the third sector. She recently stepped down after nearly ten years as chair of Jersey Festival of Words. When not leading community campaigns such as Jersey Assisted Dying Action Group, she enjoys running Jersey Repair Café: Grouville group, attending two non-fiction book groups and sea swimming.
