From David Levitt.
I HAVE read a number of articles in the JEP concerning the proposal that the States should sell a shelter in St Brelade’s Bay to the owners of the Oyster Box so that they may use the space to store rubbish bins.

In your edition of 20 February, in the Clubs and Ass-ociations section, there was a report of a lunchtime lecture at the Société Jersiaise. The lecture was about public parks.

The following paragraph was included in it:
‘After Sir Winston died in 1965, it was decided to rename the park in his honour. Restrictive covenants ensure that there should be public access to the park at all times and, through it, to St Brelade’s Bay. They also declared that no shop, factory, store or bakery or any other establishment whatsoever should be allowed in the park.’

According to the prominent signs, the Sir Winston Churchill Memorial Park includes the gardens beside the sea as well as the extensive area on the other side of the road.

In the light of all this, I would like to raise the following questions:
- Is the shelter part of the Sir Winston Churchill Memorial Park?
- If it is, do the covenants quoted above apply?
- If it is not a part of the park, why are misleading signs displayed?
- Even if the covenants could not be legally enforc-ed, might there be a moral obligation to honour them?
- Why did Planning allow the Oyster Box to put a bin store on top of the restaurant?
- Were Planning aware that by greatly increasing the exploitable area compar-ed with the previous business, there would be the danger of encroachment on to the public space?
- If this proposal goes through, what will prevent the space on top of the restaurant being used for some other purpose, perhaps even less attractive to the neighbours?
- If the States cease to own the shelter, what would prevent that plot being used in the future for some other purpose that might encroach further on the park?
- What research has been done to ensure that solemn undertakings made many years ago are not dishonoured?
- If decision-makers disregard covenants made by their predecessors, either through ignorance or expediency, what other things might be trashed?

I and many others will be interested to see answers to these questions. It would be a welcome tribute to Sir Winston, to whom we all owe so much, if there was an announcement that this proposal is to be withdrawn.
Rivendell,
Clos des Landes,
St Brelade.