THE States have given up on their commitment to build the Millennium Town Park by 2010. They say that they expect to have it ready a year late.

Despite a commitment in the 2006 Strategic Plan to have the park ready by 2010, Transport and Technical Services say that they are still four years away from completion. That commitment followed the biggest petition in Channel Island history which saw 17,500 Islanders sign up to demand the creation of a park on the former gasworks site. A feasibility study into creating an open park on the Gas Place and Talman sites is now being undertaken by the department after the Town Masterplan recommendations. The plan, put together by planning consultants Edaw, was for a flat, open park on the Gas Place site, and for the parking spaces lost to be replaced with a new multi-storey car park on the site of the States rental housing at Ann Court. Transport say that the likely cost of the project – including the cost of cleaning up contaminated soil from the gasworks – would be included in the feasibility study which will be finished by November. Chief Minister Frank Walker said that the delay was due to safety and the contamination on site.