THE latest census figures, published yesterday, show that Jersey’s population has risen by an average of some 900 people a year since the last major count in 2001.

When the census was conducted earlier this year, there were 97,857 people living in the Island – which equates to a population density of significantly more than 2,000 per square mile.

It is true that we might still be very far removed from the overcrowding of Hong Kong, Macau or even Monaco, but enough is enough and more stringent controls on immigration must rise to the top of the agenda to reduce unemployment, spare the Island’s over-stressed infrastructure and protect our general quality of life.

Even in the face of a recession that is likely to have limited the influx of new residents, the latest figures indicate that some 6,800 of the 9,000 recorded increase can be accounted for through immigration, far outweighing the excess of births over deaths. This suggests that the rate of immigration has, at least periodically, exceeded government targets.

Further analysis of the census results has yet to be undertaken to establish the extent to which the figures have been influenced by, for example, returning graduates, but Chief Minister Ian Gorst has said that he sympathises strongly with the view that a halt must eventually be called. He says that an absolute population ceiling of 100,000 should be set. Moreover, he also says that he believes that he is in tune not only with the feelings of many Islanders, but also with those of many of his fellow States Members.

Senator Gorst’s attitude is encouraging. Although it might be wrong to characterise the attitude of the previous administration by the phrase ‘let it rip’, it was certainly ready to encourage immigration if it was deemed necessary to supply the manpower needed to support growth. Unfortunately, it – and its immediate predecessors – refused to entertain the notion of a ceiling and there was unacceptable woolliness about the extent to which controls should be applied.

We now appear to have a political leader – and, it is to be hoped, a supportive Council of Ministers – ready and willing to tackle a central social and economic problem head on and to apply common sense to an issue which, until recently, was addressed through a sad mixture of unrefined free market doctrine and wishful thinking.