A lease has been signed by Infrastructure Minister Eddie Noel to let the former States Nurseries site on the outskirts of St Helier to an unnamed agriculture firm for a nine-year period.
This week, the States had been due to debate a proposition from St Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft as to whether a study should be carried out to instead turn the site into an open public space.
However, the Constable pulled the proposition after Deputy Noel agreed to carry out feasibility work in the next Island plan, which is not due to come into force until 2021.
Deputy Noel said that this was ‘a win for everyone’ as Mr Crowcroft would get the feasibility study he is after and the States could start reaping the benefits of leasing the site immediately.
But Mr Crowcroft, who was critical of the minister for agreeing the deal before the debate, said that he had little alternative other than to pull his proposition as the lease agreement would have made it unlikely that it would have been successful.
‘I didn’t really have any choice. The minister had already signed the land away,’ he said.
‘He had effectively signed a contract with a grower and there was no way, with that kind of pressure, that it [a six month study] was going to work and be approved.
‘If they had backed the proposition and the site, as I believe it would, was proven to be an ideal spot for a country park, then work could have begun immediately. As it is, we are going to have to wait five years.’
The Constable added that there had been a lack of commitment from the Council of Ministers to open space in St Helier, despite parish improvements being one of the core strategies set out in the Strategic Plan.
