The JEP has invited the 21 Senatorial candidates to answer a series of questions covering a wide range of key topics in the election.

Question:
Are the current Waterfront plans, including the sinking of the main road, the right way forward?

Deputy Alan Maclean
There has been extensive consultation into the Waterfront. Hopkins, a world-class firm of architects, has produced a good scheme. The Island needs a major financial services district to maintain its reputation as a world-class financial centre. The proposed office space equates to about four years’ demand. It includes 400 apartments and the money raised will be ploughed back into regenerating St Helier. I also like the idea of quality public spaces, especially the winter garden. The practical and economic case for sinking the road will join the
Waterfront to the town and produce the funds to regenerate St Helier.

Jeremy Maçon
The initial Waterfront concept was supposed to be the solution to the Island’s then already acute housing problem. Our parents were promised affordable housing, a school, shops and green spaces. The housing situation is much more desperate now, yet we have built luxury flats which are often owned by property investors, fast-food restaurants, a cinema and a swimming pool where we could have built what was really needed. Do the people need or want a sunken road or a finance district? We should ask people what they want. This would have been a far more worthwhile and meaningful referendum.

Cliff Le Clercq
No. They are ugly, and the traffic misery for years during the process would be teeth-grinding. Either we have a low-rise beautifully designed Waterfront like Capetown’s in South Africa or a really iconic and fabulous design, not a row of horrible cell-block-style concrete that will fill developers’ pockets while we live with the legacy. Look at some of the monstrosities we already have and the abject loss of character. The finance sector won’t leave just because we acquired some taste.

Nick Le Cornu
There is no longer any justification for restricting thousands of decent working people to life in lodgings or other second-class forms of accommodation. We must adequately house the entire population as a matter of urgency. The key to all housing problems has always been the percentage of speculative trade and construction – much of this has been subsidised by the States or favoured through tax breaks. That means the States have paid our money to aggravate the housing situation. Speculators have no interest in maintaining available housing stock in habitable condition. Instead, they are interested in profit and amortisation.

Ian Le Marquand
I am not convinced. I am not competent to comment on the architectural merit of the plans. However, I am concerned at the size of the project. If such a large area of new offices, shops and flats is fully occupied, it will require a substantial increase in population. The sinking of the main road is estimated to cost £45 million, which is a lot of money. I doubt whether the States would have agreed to this cost if it had not been packaged as part of the overall deal with Harcourt, which gives the States £50 million.

Senator Philip Ozouf
Yes. A successful Waterfront is essential for Jersey to retain its position as a world-class offshore centre. Let’s not forget, it will also directly provide 400 much-needed homes for Island families as well as £75 million to regenerate town. The plan will provide wonderful public spaces, including a winter garden. However, we do need to ensure that the contract with the developers is watertight to protect the Island’s interests.

Nick Palmer
No. Grandiosity rules here. Unfortunately, the plans all assume a continually expanding finance industry. With the current turmoil in international economic systems as a backdrop, the plans for a new finance district, built on top of the underpass, really are starting to look rather brave or foolhardy, depending on your point of view.

Mick Pashley
The Waterfront development has the potential to be the new ‘city’ of Jersey. If developed with the right facilities, it will offer the needed accomodation and services without impacting on the heritage of the rest of St Helier. Sinking the road will create more developable space, but I don’t think the planning has considered the chaos that shutting down arguably the busiest road in Jersey will cause.

Chris Perkins
The Waterfront was once only the ‘west of Albert reclamation site’. After the road was put through the middle, plans were drawn up that included low-rise housing, a primary school and a new fire station. We now have a situation where those plans have been lost in favour of acres of multi-storey offices and apartments. The development will be of little benefit to the average Islander. Most of the profits from the development will leave the Island and the young people who enjoy the open spaces at the Waterfront to hang out with their mates will have nowhere to go.

Trevor Pitman
No. Sinking a Waterfront road has obvious potential dangers. The real issue is that the plans hinge on unbroken economic and population growth. Claims that all these huge office blocks will be filled by displacement from old St Helier is nothing more than spin. More companies plus more J-cat staff will be the reality – housed where? Also, with so many truly stunning historic sites, I feel passionately that rather than a glass and concrete mess of ‘modernity’, we should have found a way to incorporate some of the majesty of, say, Gorey Castle into designing rampart-style walkways, etc.

Senator Paul Routier
The current plans have raised the bar to a high level in that they have a real feel of quality and vision. The sinking of the road does make sense, both practically and financially, because it creates greater accessability across the whole Waterfront and optimises the available space. I believe that the development of the Waterfront will be of benefit for the whole Island in that it will rejuvenate the town and will take away the need to build in the countryside.

Deputy Geoff Southern
No, because they depend on uninterrupted economic and population growth. The ministers pretend that these 14 massive office blocks will be filled by displacement from town-centre offices. The reality is that new businesses and companies will come to Jersey demanding J-cat staff, who will need housing. Will contracts for the construction work and the underpass go to local or foreign specialist companies? I suspect the latter – more imported labour. We heard many assurances that Harcourt was financially sound. We need a thorough independent review of the value its UK and Irish assets following the impact of the credit crunch.

Montfort Tadier
The Waterfront was always going to be a controversial issue. I think that the sinking of the road is a non-starter, mainly because I believe the risk of flooding cannot be
adequately safeguarded against. Regarding the rest of the plans for the Waterfront, I must be honest. I am not an architect. I feel we must wait and see, but my one concern is that the Waterfront, particularly the commercial properties on it, will rip the heart out of ‘old St Helier’.

Deputy Peter Troy
It’s the only plan we’ve got, and we need to make progress on the issue instead of going round in circles. I am concerned about a ‘boxy’ look being created, and recommend that the Planning Minister ensures that innovative building design is top of his priority list. We must do our best to enhance the area with stunning building design. I have no objection to sinking the road, but we must ensure air extractors with filters remove carbon monoxide build-up. Why TTS have never fitted extractors to the Tunnel is mystifying, as its air quality is appalling.

Senator Mike Vibert
The Waterfront is a reality and we have to develop it in the best interests of the Island as a whole both now and in the future. The sinking of the main road and the proposed development offering a high quality financial district coupled with open public spaces seeks to achieve that aim. If the inevitable traffic disruption that the road works will entail can be minimised to an acceptable level than I believe it would deliver long term benefits for the Island.

Adrian Walsh
I don’t believe they are. There needs to be more housing and fewer offices. We have over 700 people on housing waiting lists at the present time (States list will be much less as there is a higher criteria to get onto it). Keeping the number of properties artificially low in comparison to the number of residents has helped to put rent and house prices through the roof.

Daniel Wimberley
It is irresponsible of the States to lock the Island in to greater dependency on the finance industry when we should be diversifying and when the global conventional economy is in a tailspin from which it may not recover due to peak oil and its own inherent instability. Providing parking for 1,400 cars at a time when climate change demands that we drastically reduce our CO2 emissions is one detail showing how flawed is the thinking behind this scheme. The Waterfront should be offered to other uses, principally housing, but including other community facilities to be decided by residents.

Deputy Alan Breckon
The plans for the Esplanade Quarter, including the sinking of the road, are overdevelopment and are putting medium-term financial gain and greed before longer-term sustainability. There will be a serious negative effect on the existing town which was not considered.

Deputy Sarah Ferguson
I like the design – and I think the Public Planning
Enquiry should address the concerns which still exist.

Mark Forskitt
No. The ‘water affront’ plan is wrong on many levels, especially sinking the main road, with all the additional lighting and pumping out costs that implies.

Mike Higgins
I have serious reservations about the whole Waterfront scheme. We shall be creating a business quarter that will create squares of buildings six or seven storeys high which will cover a substantial area, totally transforming St Helier. While I accept that we need new and up-to-date offices, I think the scale of the operation will also lead to a substantial inflow of additional people to the Island, adding to our existing population problems. I also think it will turn the rest of St Helier into a ghetto for many years to come as businesses gravitate to the Waterfront.