On the road to nowhere: Parish system “totally unrepresentative”

Wednesday 11 July 2018

Equal representation has been kicked to the kerb after it was revealed that there are currently no elected female members on any of the Parish Roads Committees - and there hasn’t been for the last 20 years.

The answer to a written question asked by Senator Sam Mézec yesterday has revealed that there is not a single woman who has been elected to sit on the Parish Roads Committees for at least the last twenty years.

Senator Mézec said that this is further evidence of the out of date nature of the Parish system and the various mechanisms which operate within it. He told Express: “One of the big issues that got me into politics in the first place was about democracy and how Jersey’s States’ democratic system is very backward and old-fashioned and all of that can be said about the Parishes as well.

"It is obviously a democratic failing that the elected Parish Roads Committees for at least 20 years have not had a single woman sit on any of them, which means that they are totally unrepresentative of society.”

Senator Mézec said that this is a particular issue for the Parish of St. Helier as a third of the island’s population live there. He continued: “how can it be right or fair that this body that rules on stuff that will affect people’s lives in the communities… [has] no women on them and that the Rectors of the Parish Churches sit on them with full voting rights?”

Pictured: Senator Sam Mézec called the unrepresentative nature of the Parish Roads Committees a "democratic failing".

The Reform Jersey Chairman said that the fact that “unelected” members of the Church are allowed to sit on these Committees and that the Committees themselves “are unrepresentative of the people that they’re meant to be representing” is problematic for the Parish system. He said: “I think that the Parish system will die unless those in charge of the Parishes are prepared to actually have some sort of conversation about how we modernise how the system works. I fear that they have no interest in doing this at all, because they don’t even recognise that there’s a problem.”

Although, when asked about the appetite for change, Senator Mézec said that we could see reform in St Helier: “I think that with 11 out of 12 parishes it’s probably a lost cause. I think that St. Helier is salvageable though, because most of the elected representatives in St Helier accept that there’s a better way of doing things in St. Helier.” 

Senator Mézec suggested one of these alternative ways would be to abolish St. Helier’s Roads Committee and implementing an elected council. This council, the Senator said, “would be more accountable to the public and would be elected in a much fairer and more inclusive way”. 

Pictured: Senator Mézec believes there is an appetite for change in St. Helier, but not in other Parishes.

Commenting on the lack of equal representation on Parish Roads Committees, Procureur du Bien Public in St Helier Geraint Jennings, who attends Roads Committee meetings, but cannot vote, said: “We've certainly been aware of it… For many years I was by far the youngest elected member of the Roads Committee, and was certainly aware that the Roads Committee was not representative in terms of age. We have tried to encourage people to stand, especially people who could bring different experiences, but there have been institutional barriers such as the timing of elections.” 

Mr Jennings noted that there were female candidates standing in the latest elections, but unfortunately none were successful. He continued: “I believe that a new elected body for the administration of St. Helier established on a clear legal basis with bye-law making powers and devolved powers, chosen via a public election rather than an Assembly election will be more attractive to a wider range of candidates willing to serve.”  

Much like Senator Mézec, Mr Jennings said that St. Helier should be the target for any reform, adding: “I campaign for modernisation of the administration of St. Helier, not to force any other Parish to follow a model it does not want to.”