On Wednesday night, a Parish Assembly was asked to elect up to five members of a ‘Shadow Conseil Municipal’, a new body which could pave the way for a permanent devolved authority in the capital.
St Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft has been pushing for the move with the aim of securing more control for the parish over matters such as planning, licensing and environmental issues.
The four candidates who were elected from a pool of seven nominees were:
lMario Pirozzolo, who runs a large hospitality business, was heavily involved in the Seaside Festival at Havre des Pas for a number of years and has 30 years’ experience in the Territorial Army.
lMalcolm Lamy, a former St Helier Centenier, who lives outside the parish but runs a business in St Helier and served for many years in its honorary police.
lReform Jersey chairwoman Lindsay Feltham, who works for the civil service and spent a number of years developing her career in Australia. She came second in the recent St Helier 3/4 by-election behind Inna Gardiner.
lSt Helier resident Babara Corbett, who runs a legal practice in the parish specialising in family matters and takes an interest in the arts. She is involved with the Liberation Music Festival.
It was intended to also elect a youth member to the shadow council but Mr Crowcroft said that while there had been interest in the position no candidates were available on the night, so the parish would continue to look for a
suitable person in the new year.
He added that the new shadow council would also get to work next month.
‘The next step for the shadow conseil will be our first meeting on 15 January,’ he said.
‘We will be meeting monthly at 6pm on the same days that the Roads Committee meet and the meetings will be public. At first we will be looking at issues like cleanliness, retail and hospitality that affect St Helier.
‘We are also going to decide which ministers we would like to speak to about potential devolution of powers to St Helier and how that might benefit government departments.’
He added: ‘Jersey seems to be one of the few jurisdictions in the world which does not have devolved powers for local authorities, so it is about time something was done.’
The new members will join Mr Crowcroft, the parish’s two financial and legal officials – the Procureurs du Bien Public – and the six existing members of St Helier’s roads committee on the shadow council.
The proposed town council would serve as an extension of the roads committee and following an end-of-year review of the Shadow Conseil Municipal, proposals for a permanent body could be lodged with the States Assembly for approval in 2021.
