From Ray McCredie.
ONCE again the residents of St Helier have been betrayed. The proposal to build houses around the perimeter of the area promised for a Town Park is an outrage.

Greedy developers and Hopkins, the UK architects, will be the only ones to benefit, and why is the main architect from the UK? Remember: ‘Think twice, buy local’.

A representative from Hopkins, speaking on BBC Jersey on 16 September, told us that ‘building on the site would not be a problem as it was a residential area anyway’. What utter rubbish! Does this person not realise that the whole idea of a park was to inject a ‘green lung’ in the area so that the 12,000 people already crammed into this area can enjoy an open space. Where do they find these people?

Then we listened to Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf singing the praises of Hopkins by informing up of the wonderful work this firm has done designing piazzas all over the world. You could not make it up! We are talking about a simple Town Park here, not St Mark’s Square in Venice.

Senator Ozouf says that building around the perimeter would mean security for the park. Could he tell us whether the States of Jersey Police have at any time during the last ten years this project has been discussed, ever raised the issue of security? I doubt it. He used security to justify his proposal.

The creation of 300 homes in this area will obviously mean a large influx of children in the area. Will the local schools in the catchment area be able to cope with them or will new schools be constructed costing millions?

Can Senator Ozouf tell us where these children will play? Certainly not in the pathetic strip of grass left when this housing estate is complete. He has obviously discussed these important issues with the Education department – I doubt it.

The most infuriating thing concerning the ongoing saga of the Town Park is the fact that ministers (they know who they are) have wasted millions of taxpayers’ money through sheer incompetence. The failure to set the euro rate regarding the payment of the incinerator has cost enough to provide funding for any Town Park.

In the full knowledge that there will be no consequence, these people shamelessly continue about their business. This would not be tolerated anywhere else in the western world.
When Chief Minister Terry Le Sueur said last year, when referring to the GST petition, ‘even if there are 100,000 signatures against GST it will still go through,’ he summed up the breathtaking arrogance of the Establishment party.

To suggest that this party are unpopular would be a massive understatement. In reality this has to be the most deplorable, detestable, despicable, dictatorship ever formed in Jersey.
If these incapable ministers had one grain of humility in their body, or even any respect for themselves, they would have resigned their positions and quietly slipped off to obscurity somewhere.