Population control ‘failure’
Thursday 22nd July 2010, 2:59PM BST.
- Concern stalwarts Cyd Le Bail, Peter Surcouf and Chris Perkins Picture: JON GUEGAN (01012714)
THE States have failed to control a rise in population, according to members of an environmental pressure group that is disbanding this year.
- Concern stalwarts Cyd Le Bail, Peter Surcouf and Chris Perkins Picture: JON GUEGAN (01012714)
THE States have failed to control a rise in population, according to members of an environmental pressure group that is disbanding this year.
Concern has decided to fold because of members’ work commitments but has fired a final shot at Island politicians over Jersey’s ‘greatest low’ – a booming population.
• Read the full report in today’s Jersey Evening Post
The group has been fighting Jersey’s environmental corner for nearly 40 years, on issues including nuclear power, population control and pollution, but their members no longer have the time to actively continue their work.
Former chairman Cyd Le Bail said that the States had promised years ago to keep Jersey’s population at 80,000.
We know that has been forgotten,’ he said.
‘No politician has really taken it on board.’
With the latest figures showing that Jersey is home to 92,500 people, another former chairman of Concern, Peter Surcouf, said that it was causing more and more environmental problems.
‘It seems to me crazy that Jersey has the opportunity to not increase population other than by natural causes,’ he said.
lNews Focus: Page 14.
Concern stalwarts Cyd Le Bail, Peter Surcouf and Chris Perkins Picture: JON GUEGAN (01012714)
Read the full story in the Jersey Evening Post. Click here for subscription details. Individual editions are also available online.
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Full credit to the unpaid and concerned stalwarts like Cyd Le Bail; and shame on the spineless politicians who prevaricate whilst doing nothing productive.
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A cull of the old would keep the population down and solve the problem of needing to import workers to pay taxes to keep the old in a pension…..double whammy.
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‘No politician has really taken it on board.’
… sums it all up really. not just on population either, but pretty much everything.
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There will be no population control until we have work permits. The existing system of 5 year rule is compldetely ignored, pretty much anyone can step off the boat and live here.
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Why are these stalwarts wasting their time. I did not hear any of them object to the incinerator being built at Havre-des-Pas at 100 milllion. Perhaps they are not really all that concerned about the environment in Jersey.
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shame to see you go people.
no doubt you may have sore heads from banging them against the brick wall.
we are overpopulated.
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Wake up guys…they have been aggressively pursuing an open door policy for ages…build to sell, buy to let.especially to outsiders,Jobs not advertised locally so even more outsiders ,many of whom were previously on the team of the head of dept in u.k. parachuted in ,housing permission given to Tom Dick and Harry….where have you been………?
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They keep building flats all over,encouraging more to move here—the town is gridlocked with traffic,they can,t cope at the hospitals,jobs are scarce—this place is rapidly going downhill and nothing is done about it.
Actually it,s true to say jersey is becoming a nightmare to live in.
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@Rudolph Hooker
A few more cold winters coupled with ever increasing electricity prices should do that for you quite nicely…
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I remember when you could go into a temp agency and get a job within a matter of weeks. As the population increased employment opportunities became harder. Therefore I had no choice but to leave.
I am now living on the other side of the world in a hot and safe environment with a job and in a nice apartment!
If the states carries on letting more people in without some sort of control the island whole infrastructure will get worse, longer waiting lists for hospital appts, less jobs for locals, more traffic, crime will increase.
The ones who will have to pick up the mess will be the locals who have lived in Jersey all their lifes, not your average Jo who has just stepped off a boat from France or the uk!
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Truthseeker comment 7 – Totally agree, I’ve seen entire teams shipped in from the UK at the bank, jobs were never advertised, free accommodation and J cats given out like smarties.
Once here they stay for an indefinite period as J cats are now unlimited, not 5 years like they used to be. They become locally qualified after 10 years and buy houses with the money not spent on rent while renting out their UK properties. Any UK staff taking an appointment in Jersey should have to demonstrate that they are doing a job that locals can’t do and should have in place a training programme to train a local replacement within a 3 year period. there can be few jobs ( medical positions excepted ) that cannot be taught within 3 years.
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Jo Jo …Hot and safe …sounds good to me…where…?
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This is all because of our reliance on finance.
If we pull up the drawbridge and make it far harder to move here, there’s every chance the financial institutions will get a bit jumpy!
Also, we are a very greedy island – we want the world to bend over backwards for us – there will be posters on this site who want UK citizens to be classified as foreigners, but at the same time vent their anger at the UK Government for ending the reciprocal health agreement
Now that we’ve made our bed, I’m not sure what measures we can implement to deport 10,000 people. The only way this will happen is if the financial companies stop seeing any benefits of having off shore locations.
If that were to happen then Jersey will be in the brown stuff!
In a nutshell, we have serious problems Jersey & nobody seems to have an answer
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@Mulvie Le Phew
You over estimate the intelligence of some of our locals my friend
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Ahead of their time and at the very point that society is starting to catch up they are left having to disband. Sad.
Still now that society is starting to catch up with the realities of overpopulation hopefully their work can continue by individual people expressing their concerns.
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Cyd taught me at Hautlieu – best teacher I ever had.
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Jersey is an attractive place to live – if you lived in a country with no jobs very poor prospects you would look else where. Countries becoming members of the EU have mad a huge difference to the islands population. They arrive with a strong work ethic and a good education..they get accommodation and a job …they write and tell the rest of their family and friends…and so it goes on!
Construction is full of non 5 year tradesman, with 200 more flats on order their will be more
Please don’t build flats!! Kids that live in them use St Helier as their back yard…
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If you don’t like it (as JoJo did) there is always a boat in the morning.
I wish the locals would stop moaning. If it weren’t for the imports the standard of living and services (public and private) would be far lower.
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We need more thnic minorities and eastern europeans to increase diversity.
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truthseeker- Singapore
God’s Mentor-I didn’t leave Jersey because I did not like it, I left because the area I work in there are no jobs!
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19. Yeh – that works so well in the UK ………
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God’s Mentor
Posted July 24, 2010 at 11:26 am
“If you don’t like it (as JoJo did) there is always a boat in the morning.”
I am a local and would dearly love to take that boat, but I don’t “live” on Jersey, I “exist” here.
Overpriced rents, overpriced food basics and overpriced everyday essentials see to that.
As much as I would love to do so, I cannot afford to jump on the next boat and start a new life elsewhere. I will have to scrimp and save for a number of years to achieve that goal.
So you might want to pause for thought in future before making such flippant comments.
And you might want to start asking “why” so many locals are moaning, rather than mocking them for it.
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Open the gates and embrace multi culturism.
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i have been comeing to jersey since i was a young boy in the boys brigade camping at red house camping site for 10 years, i have now been comeing with my family since 1993 and seen the changes,not for the better.my wife was born and bred on the island all my inlaws are there. we would like to come and live on the island but we cannot. the tourist are being taken for aride with high prices and buildings are going up allover the place for the influx of non uk immigrants.we love the island and would love to move there.we will be comeing there for our holiday again this year
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Population control is easy – just stop building and stop worrying when places like Jersey Post lose unskilled jobs. Make sure benefits are only given to people willing to work – and that should mean picking potatoes, cleaning beaches, serving coffee.
Population is out of control because there are too many unskilled jobs sucking in labour and too much support for those who have no skills but regard unskilled work as beneath them.
Stop building, cut benefits and up GST to 20% and watch the workshy moaners leave, the population reduce, the tax black hole vanish and the quality of life for the hardworking, law abiding majority who want to live here will improve dramatically.
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jo jo…i will make enquiries
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The population will decrease anyway as Jersey is finished ,unemployment is going through the roof and instead people should flee the nest and look elsewhere for a decent future instead of claiming benefits and sitting at a pc all day on facebook.
If i was long term unemployed i would move somewhere else, its a big wide world out there you know behond this tiny rock….Did anyone over here realize there is life out there, i dont think you do i keep forgetting you only think a place called Jersey is the only land mass on earth.
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More people who need to eat, be housed,spend money on clothes, electricity etc etc keep money men / women rich, it’s a numbers game. The more people, the more money.
It is that straight forward. The public will pick up the cost for an enlarged infrustructure and services and overcrowding. The wealthy will just instal bigger gates and better security.
Davey.
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#17 Tina, are you assuming that all immigrants have a “strong work ethic and a good education”, because it just isn’t the case, even though it gets banded around a lot on here. I’m highly educated but my education hasn’t (and wouldn’t) bring me here because there just aren’t the academic challenges, I’m here for love rather than money, the other immigrants I’ve met have barely finished the equivalent of high school and have no trade either.
The skilled and highly educated ones will mostly be here as J-Cats I would imagine.
#25 “those who have no skills but regard unskilled work as beneath them.” It’s only in more recent years that I’ve really noticed that people like this really do exist. Unfortunately I suspect that it is the snooty treatment such people have received from more educated people that has caused them to develop this attitude, but it is detrimental to us all. I think maybe society needs to be more accepting of all people and recognise that everyone’s job has its place (including cleaners, shop cashiers etc) and treat each other with more respect, then maybe this attitude will diminish. I have in the past worked on a till at weekends to help out a friend’s fledgling business, despite the qualifications require by my then day job. The attitude of so many of the public towards shop cashiers is utterly disgusting, some intentionally make no eye contact, throw the money at you and do everything they can to make out that you are beneath them! These people have created the problem, they should fix it by having a reality check on their own self-importance (well, their lack there-of)!
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28, your bang on!
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What a shambles!
If we had a decent immigration policy then perhaps the Jersey residents would be saved from deluded wind-up merchants like God’s Mentor.
You are in Jersey, why exactly??
Presumably your, erm, “talents” are either not required where you hail from…..or do not pay too much.
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23 – quite correct. Our pathetic excuse for a government has allowed people into this island to work for low wages in the industries you mention.
Then we tax payers have to pick up the tab via the welfare system – madness!!
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too many people in jersey.
stop benefits and make everyone pay a £5,000 per year residency fee if the want to stay.
that should brighten things up for those who want to live here.
too many people born here, live here and spend their time complaining about here. go elsewhere, there’s a whole world out there you don’t have to live here. you might find that its not jersey thats bad but you that is grumpy.
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The reason why we keep importing workers is because the intelligent locals have left.
Invariably, people born & bred in Jersey who stay here all their lives fall into 3 categories
1) They lack the adventure to experience anything beyond this island
2) They have no motivation or ambition, so they struggle to see a career path away from these shores
3) They lack the necessary brain cells to achieve a quality job on their own merits, without relying on the States 5 year qualification rule
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Jean,
There are plenty of local people who have gone abroad, worked abroad, travelled widely and realised that Jersey offers opportunities to achieve a work/life balance that are impossible to find elsewhere. I know lots of people in Jersey who earn six figures salaries (after tax), are home by 5.30 every day, and are no less capable than colleagues in any of the world’s major financial centres.
The problem is the minority of bleaters who seem to think that the finance industry is full of non-locals. That is the case in retail, hospitality and agriculture, but finance has always offered fantastic opportunities for locals with ambition.
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29 Leah
“The attitude of so many of the public towards shop cashiers is utterly disgusting”
There are plenty of extremely rude cashiers in my experience too. Very often I will see cashiers chatting to another cashier in a foreign tongue whilst queues of customers buils up……they are in a servive industry and the service we receive is extremely poor.
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Jean
or 4) they are trying to save enough money to escape!
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I think that they should build the bridge to France that has already been suggested.
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jean(34)
1. have travelled quite a bit thanks.
2. like it here “warts and all ” tell me why i and my wife should leave our birthplace , may lack ambition as we do not live to pray to mamon.
3. have never needed to quote the 5 year rule, when getting a job, and find i.m.h.o. the five year rule to be a worth as much as my qualies.
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#36 BS I do agree with that. In shops I do usually find the service appalling, but thankfully not so much in the island’s cafes. I’ve had to bite my tongue so many times seeing how other customers have treated the person serving them! I applied the same rule as the ‘servant’ as I do as a customer. If the person is miserable and rude I adopt a huge smile and am very polite, it’s fun when you see that it makes some of them uncomfortable. If the person is very pleasant then I’ll just be pleasant back. I cannot see what is to be gained from being rude to them.
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Leah, the café rudeness is made more obvious because one has to actually ask for an item rather than just plonking it down at the till.
I am continually astounded by the number of customers who will say something along the lines of “One them (sic) cakes and a coffee” without mention of please and thankyou.
And that is often after the extremely gracious Polish girl behind the counter has greeted them as valued regulars!
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BS Deluxe 36.
I have to agree with Leah here. It works both ways, some shop assistants, waitresses, etc., receive the rudest treatment, more often than not from people with a highly perceptible poor self image.
Personally, I find it impossible to be ‘rough’ with people providing a service who cannot hit back, no matter how annoying they can be. So, I usually just put on my most ‘understanding’ face and smile…and then kill them with kindness.
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Leah & Born Warrior
Perhaps it’s the american culture we are all adopting…..people watch too many movies where orders are seen to be barked rather than politely requested.
I for one am as polite as I can be, but I admit there are times when extremely rude counter staff are very close to getting a tongue lashing!
In ANY culture I believe it is rude to act that way so that cannot be used as an excuse.
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