Press Statement from the Jersey Community Land Trust (JCLT)

Following the announcement from the Minister for Infrastructure regarding the outcome of the Opportunity, the Jersey Community Land Trust wishes to express our sincere thanks to everyone involved in what has been a thoughtful and collaborative process.

The JCLT were honoured to have been selected as the lead bidder for the Opportunity. The Park, and the Pavilion at its heart, holds extraordinary potential as a vibrant hub for community, sport, recreation, education, nature, and wellbeing.

The JCLT’s vision for the Pavilion was to establish “a sustainable Pavillion facility, established by a democratic and transparent organisation, that compliments the wider Park and provides added value to the Island.” This vision was principled on long-term stewardship, local empowerment, and shared ownership. These are the values that define the work of the JCLT.

After being named as the preferred bidder, the JCLT were asked to make changes to our original proposal and engage with new stakeholders from a list of previously unsuccessful bids. The JCLT embraced this opportunity, working to develop an even broader and more inclusive platform. Naturally, this required careful coordination and took time to do properly. In parallel, the JCLT engaged with the Planning Department, an engagement that identified constraints on the existing and future use of the Pavilion within the Park: these are challenges that will continue to affect any operator or tenant of the Pavilion under the current planning use class.

The JCLT also want to acknowledge, and apologise for, our limited ability to engage directly with the wider public during this Opportunity. As participants in a formal process, the JCLT and our key stakeholders were required to observe certain restrictions, including confidentiality. While these rules are in place to ensure fairness, they limited the kind of open dialogue and community engagement that sits at the heart of how a community land trust is governed. The JCLT hope the public, and in particular the parishioners of St Brelade, will understand the care and consideration that JCLT brought to every step of the Opportunity, even when much of it had to happen behind the scenes.

The JCLT respect the outcome and remain grateful for the integrity with which the Opportunity has been carried out with. In particular, we want to thank the landlord of the Park, the Minister and his officers at Jersey Property Holdings, the Connétable of St. Brelade, project stakeholders, and the Parish Deputies that we met. Their collective willingness to explore new models of community-led, democratically-governed development has been encouraging and sets a foundation for future innovation in similar local opportunities.

This experience has also highlighted the complexity of delivering public projects in Jersey on unique sites such as Les Creux, Fort Regent, and La Folie and others. The JCLT’s view is that the widely used community land trust model can offer a new way to meet the challenges that these places offer, through a transparent, democratic development of the planning brief and use that centres local voices and surrounds them with long-term benefit. This has been demonstrated through our ongoing interest at La Folie, where for the past 18 months we have been developing a people-led alternative vision for the site.

The JCLT remains committed to supporting our public bodies and parish organisations that wish to deepen community participation in regeneration. The JCLT would be glad to assist any public or private organisation with community engagement, stakeholder consultation and helping to establish a planning brief, where our experiences of the community land trust model and our independence and impartiality can add real value early on.

The JCLT offer our continued support to public officials taking this Opportunity forward, and we remain hopeful that the Park and the Pavilion will realise its promise as a space shaped by and for the community. The JCLT also remain available to take part in the realisation of the long-term vision for the Park and the Pavilion in the future.

Public places thrive when communities have a genuine stake in their future. The JCLT is building a growing network of Islanders who believe in long-term stewardship, local voice, and democratic ownership of the spaces that matter most. We invite you to visit www.jerseyclt.org, join the community, and be part of shaping a more inclusive, people-led future for Jersey.