Foreshore update January 2023

Just before Christmas, on a very cold, wet, December morning, I met with the Minister for Infrastructure and some Constituents where we walked along the seafront between Le Hurel and Seymour slips. We were there to look at the sea wall, the sea defences and some of the encroachments to the Foreshore and to consider how it can be restored.

The proposition I took to the previous States Assembly needs to be settled and the policy and  sentiments therein acted on. The dilemma has to also be balanced with an earlier meeting I had with the same Minister, along with two other Constituents who had suffered some very heavy handed treatment and ‘fines’ issued by the States for encroachment, which I continue to pursue to have put right. Fortunately the new Infrastructure Minister is on another page to the last one and I am therefore more hopeful that progress, at last, will be made to find a fair and equitable solution for the public.

In March 2024 the Minister awarded compensation to the two individuals which was ratified by the new Minister, Andy Jehan when he took over.

It has been a very long seven years to reach this point, after taking the issue to a Complaints Panel Hearing, a Scrutiny Hearing, tabling a proposition and amendment, followed by two States Assembly debates which formed a new Policy, and four Infrastructure Ministers later, justice was finally served, and my Constituents finally received compensation! And all because a previous Minister thought he could make a quick buck for the States by exploiting the Queens gift to the public of Jersey in 2015.