Constable seeks £100k to finally kickstart country park project

Friday 25 November 2022

St. Helier’s Constable is pushing Ministers to honour a “decade-old decision” to develop Warwick Farm as a country park.

Simon Crowcroft wants to tweak spending plans for the coming year so that £100,000 is set aside for a feasibility study.

His plan to safeguard Warwick Farm as a future 'St. Helier Country Park' to "provide access to high quality outside green space for islanders" was first approved more than 10 years ago, then reaffirmed by States Members this year when they passed the Bridging Island Plan which provides a blueprint for development until 2025.

"The increasing development of sites within the town to meet the housing needs of islanders, and the very nature of these developments, often with limited outdoor space, makes the provision of a Country Park to serve the urban area even more important than it was when I first proposed it as part of the 2011 Island Plan," the Constable argued in a report accompanying his proposition.

Pictured: Constable Crowcroft spoke about the idea of a country park on the latest Politics Disassembled podcast. 

Constable Crowcroft is also asking for £100,000 be allocated to establish a town council - something he has been seeking to create for a number of years.

A shadow town council was successfully trialled between January 2020 and June 2021, after the parish found that its objectives were being "hampered by a lack of control and authority", according to Mr Crowcroft.

If established, a council would allow the parish to have more control over matters such as planning, licensing and environmental issues.