From Simon Crowcroft, the Constable of St Helier.
ACCORDING to your correspondent on 15 June, I have gone on record as saying that I would like to increase the rates.

I am pretty sure that there are few Constables who would ever utter such a remark! It certainly doesn’t square with my stated objective of bringing down St Helier rates. Moreover, I have frequently called for a contribution from general taxation towards the costs of running the Island’s main town, and I am several years into a campaign to persuade the States to pay rates on their properties.

What I actually said in relation to the proposed rationalisation of street cleaning services in the parish is that St Helier is proposing to spend more on street cleaning; I did not say that this would involve an increase in rates.

As a St Helier ratepayer, Mr Le Cocq will know that we are managing to increase front-line services – more street-cleaning staff, parish wardens, apprentices, etc – because as an organisation we have slimmed down management and increased non-rates income.

Ratepayers also know that the amount of rates they pay is for them to decide at the annual rates assembly, which in the case of St Helier will be on 8 July this year. So if Mr Le Cocq objects to the fact that we are in the process of recruiting five more street-cleaning staff to enable us to provide an afternoon and evening cleaning service, he ought to turn up on that evening to express his concerns.

The proposed changes to the way street cleaning is organised have been in the pipeline for several years and followed efforts by the former Chief Minister, Frank Walker, to get rid of the duplication between the Parish of St Helier and the States of Jersey. They will be considered at a parish assembly on Wednesday 24 June and, if approved, will be subject to a 12-month trial, in which parish staff and vehicles will be deployed on the area within the ring road while the resources of Transport and Technical Services are deployed outside it.

As for the suggestion that we get ‘offenders’ to sweep the streets, this may work where a top-up service is required, but could not be relied upon to achieve a consistent high standard of cleanliness. I think the job of getting our streets clean requires personnel who are properly recruited, trained and remunerated for their work.
Town Hall,
St Helier.