The re-engagement of community is the only option

I wrote this article for the Jersey Evening Post in June 2008. I've put it on my blog because a customer of ours Ad-Lib Restaurant were quoted in the JEP yesterday stating that they would like to grow the food for their restaurant but were struggling to do so because of the lack of allotments in St. Helier. You'll see from this article it was one of my suggestions for the Town Park.


In his book “The audacity of hope”, Barack Obama possibly the next US president acknowledges how sceptical people have become of the modern political process; “nourished by a generation of broken promises”, but he points out historically politics was “based on the simple idea that we have a stake in one another, and that what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart. That if enough people believe in the truth of that proposition and act on it, then we might not solve every problem, but we can get something meaningful done”

From the debates that have taken place in our own States Chambers over the last couple of weeks it is clear that there is a major problem with the level of political engagement the Council of Ministers have even with States members. A recent Chamber survey came back with the extraordinary statistic that 72% of the respondents felt that Government saw no value in small business, yet Economic Development would argue they’ve never tried harder to help.

The problem is that Government has become to be seen as the proverbial Super- tanker in a sea of small boats; the challenge for us all is to find a way of connecting that flotilla of small boats so that the Super-tanker can be better directed or better still down-sized. For me the Incinerator typifies how disconnected we have become as a society when it comes to real debate and discussion.

I don’t have a particular axe to grind with T&TS per se, however there seems to be an obsession with spending £100 million plus of public money, a massive sum but where is the public debate? Even when there is a suggestion that the project will be paid for with cash from a reserve fund, that’s the equivalent of over 2 years worth of GST! There’s still no debate!

It’s that Super-tanker problem again – “what can I do that will change anything?” Well in the case of the Incinerator debate I would suggest that a copy of the Juniper report was sent to every household and school and made compulsory reading in the same way TTS sent a flyer via the JEP backing their view. It takes two sides to debate, yet only one side is entering the discussion.

As a result I’ve decided to come up with a “wish list” – a list whose sole intent is to re-engage the community, to get people to feel that they can be a force for change to the benefit of all:





1. The Town park; why not instead of making it into a park consider the idea of turning it into a series of allotments? A place where people who have no garden of their own can re-engage with the land, understand once again where their food comes from.

2. The burnt out shell of the Wesley Street Methodist Church be turned into a unit for small manufacturing businesses, operated in such a way that the types of businesses installed would also have to have a tourism content whereby visitors could come and see the operations in progress and be exposed to the talent that resides in Jersey

3. Liberty Wharf is given over to local retail businesses so that we end up with a unique offering for both visitors and locals alike, rather than as I’ve just experienced on Wimbledon high street “clone town” Britain, with all the usual national suspects, but absolutely no soul.

4. A Green agenda that encourages local entrepreneurs to take over and make money out of re-cycling opportunities, with Government input being in a more advisory / watchdog capacity thereby saving tax payers money.

5. I would like to see the Chamber of commerce develop the equivalent of a business “face book”. For the price of their annual membership fee, a business would have a profile, could openly blog about issues that are directly impacting them, and which in turn could be used as a tool by Government to inform future strategies, from Regulations of Undertakings to Planning.

6. All Parish Hall meetings should have an Internet connection so that if you are unable to attend the meeting physically you could follow the debate from home and in turn take part in the voting process. Too often major decisions are voted on by just a handful of people

My plea is for people to re-engage, and my suggestion list will I hope spark some debate. Never before has there been so much change and yet so little discussion by the vast majority of people. We all lead hectic lives and there’s always a reason why we can’t participate. If we want to protect our community, and have a community to protect in the long term it requires us all to take part in what I call the big conversation. After all ………

If not now when? – If not you who?