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ITV News
3 days ago
- Politics
- ITV News
Green space or primary school? Opinions divided on the future of the old Jersey Gas site
Channel Education Environment Opinions are divided on what should be done with the former Jersey Gas site in St Helier: a new school or an extended park. After years of discussions, St Helier Connétable Simon Crowcroft has lodged a proposition, urging politicians to reconsider building a new school in the space next to Millennium Town Park. Instead, he is fighting to extend the existing green area and says building would restrict the amount of space for public use. The Education Minister, Deputy Rob Ward, wants to close St Luke's and Springfield schools once this new one is up and running. Defending the current plans, Deputy Ward says: "This also comes with the old Springfield site becoming a park for that area, plus Les Bas Centre becoming a green space, so we are increasing those types of areas. "At the moment, those students at St Luke's and Springfield have no green space to run about in during their breaktimes, so every single day they miss out. "With a new school, they will have that. This is just as equally important for them." Deputy Ward adds: "Staff are having to work miracles every day with the facilities they have. This was agreed some years ago and should be in place by now, but we seem to be taking this for debate again. "I just want us to get on with building the new school, which has always been so needed." However, Connétable Crowcroft says this project would prevent his plan to expand Millennium Town Park. In his proposition, he says: "I make no bones about wanting the Assembly to reconsider the decision taken in the Bridging Island Plan... to build a new primary school on the only site which could ever be used to extend the Millennium Town Park. "I am passionate about parks, and my belief in their environmental, social, therapeutic and economic value to the whole community has only grown since the pandemic." He adds: "I am fighting so hard to get the park extended because you can build a new school, if you need to, somewhere else, but you can't extend the town park anywhere else but here." The earliest date politicians will debate Connétable Crowcroft's proposition is Tuesday 24 June. Sasha Gibb, who founded a local group to give the community a voice on how public space is used, adds: "97% of the kids are Springfield School already don't have outdoor green space of their own. The park is their greenspace, the park is their school, they are intertwined. "There is no reason why the solution should not embrace both, a fantastic school and a fantastic park, and I know that we can do that. "It is not about polarising and setting a political agenda against one another." Want the inside track on the issues that will shape Guernsey's Election this June? Listen to Guernsey Votes, an ITV Channel podcast packed with expert guests, local insight and analysis you can trust...
BBC News
06-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
The concrete reminders of Jersey's German Occupation in WW2
When the Germans occupied the Channel Islands in World War Two, they set about turning them into impregnable fortresses. Hitler imagined that the British would want to retake them as soon as possible, so he ordered the construction of hundreds of bunkers, walls, tunnels and other of those were destroyed after the war, but many remain and are still being used Germans realised that the sandy beaches on Jersey's south and west coasts were perfect for landing an invasion force with landing ships able to carry tanks and other vehicles right up to the shore. While there were already some barriers - built against the sea - the Germans wanted a continuous wall all along St Aubin's Bay and St Ouen's Bay that would be proof against tanks and turn the beaches into killing zones raked by gunfire from their 1942 they brought hundreds of slave and forced workers to the island to expand the defences - many which dated to the Napoleonic along the coast they laboured with concrete and steel to form walls that 80 years later protect Jersey from the storms that batter the island every height and solidity of the wall in St Aubin's Bay in particular has stood up to all but the worst of them, albeit with regular means islanders can have the cycle track and the dual carriageway and secure homes along the south coast. "There's no doubt that the island would have had to have spent tens of millions of pounds on putting up these kinds of defences, particularly with the rise in sea levels," said Constable Simon Crowcroft, Assistant Minister for the walls are other structures that have been repurposed - such as the Gunsite Cafe, Faulkner's Fisheries, the car repair garage at Sandybrook, and the restored German bakery at Beaumont which is now The Pavilions block of bunkers are used for storage and recreation across the course all of these structures came at a terrible cost in human suffering. The workers who built them had been transported hundreds of miles from home in awful conditions. They were worked hard, to the point of exhaustion, and faced beatings and other punishments for even minor offences."It involved unknown number of forced labourers and we remember their sacrifice on Liberation Day itself in the afternoon when we go to the Slave Workers Memorial," said Crowcroft. "We're stuck with these things, it's a legacy," said Matthew Costard, of the Channel Islands Occupation Society."And I think that if they can find a new lease of life, in a useful role, then it preserves those buildings and helps to tell the story."And it gives something back to the infrastructure of the island." And there's one place in the island which has been turned from an ugly blot on the landscape into one of its most desirable locations for a scenic break, for islanders and former German observation tower and gun emplacement at Corbiere is a grey anomaly against the blue sky and green cliffs, but Jersey Heritage has spent thousands transforming its interior into accommodation that sleeps six tower, at the south-western point of Jersey, has a 90% occupancy rate making it one of the island's most successful overnight spots."I think this is one of the best examples of a building in Jersey that has been repurposed from its original intended use to a really popular destination for locals and tourists," said Michael Bee of Jersey Heritage.
BBC News
11-04-2025
- General
- BBC News
New playgrounds in Jersey open in time for Easter
A new playground and an older one that was shut for refurbishment work in Jersey have Parish of St Helier said the new playground at Parade Gardens catered for children up to the age of six as, while the refurbished one was for children aged seven and parish said both spaces were designed to be inclusive and offered children of all abilities and ages the opportunity to Simon Crowcroft said: "Whilst we have planned a formal opening of our new parks in early May, I am delighted that our new play spaces are available for children and young people to enjoy ahead of schedule and for the remainder of the Easter break."
