READER LETTER: Why can’t Jersey celebrate itself like Guernsey does? Here’s what the island is getting right

When I read so many of our election candidates’ complacent and unobservant response to the question ‘What does Guernsey do better than Jersey?‘‘, I shook my head in disbelief. I almost decided there was no point in voting after all. 

Had I been asked such a question, I would have replied that, by accident or design, the authorities in Guernsey have contrived to curate an appealing and distinctive island scene in many ways Jersey could learn from.

This is not just about making Jersey “pretty” for our visitors. It’s about giving all residents, particularly those with limited disposable income, the right to take pleasure in a shared, attractive environment and pride in where they live.

Here are just some examples of what so many of the election candidates seem to have missed:

1. St Peter Port v St Helier

St Peter Port has shops, restaurants, offices and housing. All blend together into one harmonious and distinctive whole. The skyline of St Helier is a disaster: a jumble of ill matched building styles and to add insult to injury the most ugly and prominent blocks have recently had mobile telephony paraphernalia tacked on to them. Who is responsible for this collapse of ambition for the appearance of Jersey’s capital?

2. A warm welcome

A prominent sign at the harbour greets ferry passengers with the words Welcome to Guernsey. We offer nothing comparable.

3. Sea swimming

The sea swimming pools at La Vallette have lockers, a sauna, warm showers and a bustling atmosphere. Havre des Pas does not yet compete with that.

4. Street lights

The majority of Guernsey’s street lights are of an appealing, question mark design. Ours are mostly ugly. The formerly attractive ones on Route du Fort and in Bouley Bay have been replaced. The street lights recently extended along St Brelade’s Bay are so unpleasant it’s a joke.

5. Flying the flag

The Guernsey flag flies daily, by itself, outside the States building and Sir Charles Frossard House. Our flag almost never flies above our Royal Court building or outside the new Government of Jersey building in The Parade.

When it makes an appearance it’s not flown alone but only alongside a Union Jack, as if to say the Jersey flag does not really count for anything in its own right.

6. The Marina

The Queen Elizabeth II Marina in St Peter Port is lined within by dressed Guernsey granite to set off the view of the boats on their moorings and integrate the old with the new. The east side of the Elizabeth Marina is lined with rubble. 

7. The noon day gun

In SPP you will hear a noon day gun. Pointless but characterful. In St Helier little interrupts the background drone of the traffic, certainly not a peal of bells from St Helier Parish Church.

8. Signage

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Many of Guernsey’s directional road signs follow a distinct island design of green on white and feature the Parish crest of their location. Jersey’s slavishly follow UK standards including information no one ever uses about A roads and B roads. An excellent example of the import of a UK practice of no relevance to islanders. Has any local ever called the Five Mile Road the B35? 

9. The Guernsey

The Guernsey pullover is made in Guernsey and still worn. The Jersey is all but extinct. How have we let an island craft which put the word “jersey” on the map simply die?

10. Airline

Aurigny costs them dear, but Guernsey has its own airline with the words Guernsey’s Airline emblazoned on the fusilage and the island flag on their tail.

EasyJet offers flights to “Jersey, United Kingdom” and no one in authority has troubled to correct them.

11. Fences

Fences in Guernsey may only run at right angles to the roadside. Roadside boundaries must consist of masonry or hedging, so even dense development blends better into the island scene. Over the past 20 years Jersey has seen an explosion of rustic wooden fencing of all manner of colours, fancy designs and states of disrepair across the countryside and even in town. The result is the instant suburbanisation of otherwise rural areas. Rustic fencing has no place in town either. Fencing is strictly controlled in the UK’s areas of outstanding natural beauty and in Guernsey. In Jersey, with some honourable exceptions, no one seems to care.

12. Number plates

Guernsey allows smart and distinctive silver on black car registration plates, all but unique in Europe. As ever, Jersey clings to UK standards and 200,000 chances to underline our autonomy are lost. 

I find it hard to understand why the authorities in Guernsey seem intuitively to recognise that their island’s special character deserves to be nurtured and celebrated, while Jersey consistently suffers from some sort of cultural cringe.

Why are we so frightened of our right to do our own thing?  So many of the details listed above could be corrected at little cost or effort. Is there a new politician with the imagination and tenacity to do so?

Yours faithfully,

Christopher Scholefield
Advocate, Save Jersey’s Heritage campaigner, and former French honorary consul