From Matthieu Falle.IT was with sheer joy, as a Jerseyman, that I read that our beloved Waterfront hotel is to grace even more of the precious St Helier coastline, not with hotel rooms – but flats.

This new addition will match and yet ‘enhance’ the existing hotel with the same uncompromising contours enabling the hotel to command an even greater striking appearance.I was trying to think where I had seen such original design before, and soon realised that the artist’s impression was reminiscent of many a 1960s’ urban flat block.

This style is not too dissimilar to the current stock of recent prominent buildings that are, and will be, erected in and around the Waterfront.Jersey is changing, it is shaking off its traditional one and two-storey buildings that give the Island its architectural charm, and embracing bold, minimalist, over-proportioned and uncompromising blocks that sit so uncomfortably in a small Island.

Jersey has spent a considerable number of years reclaiming St Helier’s coastline so as to create a new desirable waterfront. Ultimately we now end up with a mass of new land which has been handed over to developers and investors whose only consideration is to squeeze as much back-to-back development within the area as possible so as to enable maximum personal profits.

Town ports and waterfronts in general may commonly consist of industry and commercial venture, but weren’t we trying to create something a bit different, something that would add to and benefit the Island as a whole?The reclaimed Waterfront will seriously lack any charm, and important open spaces which are vital to urban living.

Where is the greenery and pleasant waterside promenades that would help to make the whole project worthwhile?It has been reported that the surviving green open space, situated on top of the car park, is soon be developed. The last large open space of the Esplanade car park, will also be developed into an alien grid system of office blocks which are supposed to ‘connect’ the Waterfront to the original town. Offices and development may help to sustain Jersey’s economy, but it appears that Jersey is blindly losing its soul in the process.Progress Stores,Dicq Road,St Saviour.