--- title: "St Helier has just 7.7 sq metres of usable green space per resident" url: https://www.nsfw.info/st-helier-green-space-per-resident-regeneration/ published: 2026-10-31T11:00:42+00:00 modified: 2026-10-31T11:00:42+00:00 author: "Chief Editor" categories: ["Government"] image: https://www.nsfw.info/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/st-helier-green-space-per-resident-regeneration-1024x572.webp summary: "Deputy Victoria Li wants a new open space audit by 2027 and a guarantee that St Helier's 7.7 sq metres of green space per resident won't shrink further." publisher: NSFW (https://www.nsfw.info) --- # St Helier has just 7.7 sq metres of usable green space per resident **In brief:** Deputy Victoria Li has lodged an amendment to the Common Strategic Policy calling for stronger protections for St Helier’s green spaces and children’s play areas. The amendment would require an updated open space audit by the end of 2027 and commit the government to replacing any public space lost to development. The States Assembly is due to debate the Common Strategic Policy on 10 November. ## The Green Space Gap St Helier is, by most measures, a town doing a great deal with very little room. The Jersey Evening Post reports that Deputy Victoria Li, representing St Helier North, has proposed two new ministerial commitments as amendments to the government’s Common Strategic Policy. The first would require an updated St Helier Open Space Audit to be completed by the end of 2027, alongside the introduction of measurable standards for accessible green space and play areas. The second would commit the government to maintaining the overall amount of publicly accessible open space in the parish, ensuring that any space lost to development is replaced elsewhere in St Helier. The backdrop to this is the government’s ambition to make St Helier the centrepiece of regeneration, new housing and investment, including a planned higher and further education campus in the town centre. Major sites such as Overdale, Fort Regent and the Waterfront are all in various stages of redevelopment. Deputy Li’s concern is straightforward: if you are going to build more homes and attract more residents, you had better make sure there is somewhere for them to breathe. ## The Numbers Behind the Amendment The most recent comprehensive open space audit dates from 2018, a fact that Deputy Li describes as a significant problem. That assessment found St Helier had approximately 90 hectares of public open space. However, once sports facilities, cemeteries and areas with limited public access were stripped out, the usable figure fell to just 7.7 square metres per resident. The 2018 audit itself compared this against the Fields in Trust guidelines used as a national benchmark in the UK, and St Helier fell short on every category tested. Children’s play provision emerges as a particular concern. The audit found that equipped play space was around 61% below the standard set in the 2008 Open Space, Sport and Recreation Study. Of 32 equipped play sites identified at the time, only six were fully open to the public, with many others located within social housing estates and therefore not freely accessible to all residents. The same survey found that around 18% of St Helier parishioners had no outdoor space at home, making public parks and play areas not a luxury but a practical necessity for a significant portion of the population. Deputy Li put it plainly: “The evidence base is now eight years old. Since 2018 new housing has been built in town, and major sites including Overdale, Fort Regent and the Waterfront are being redeveloped. A regeneration strategy built without an updated audit would be planning without a baseline.” ## A Reasonable Ask Before the Bulldozers Arrive The amendment will be considered alongside the government’s broader Common Strategic Policy when the States Assembly debates it on 10 November. Deputy Li’s argument is not that regeneration should stop, but that it should proceed with an accurate picture of what residents actually have, and a firm commitment not to leave them with less. As she put it: “The CSP rightly makes St Helier the focus of regeneration and new homes. This amendment makes sure the people who live there, especially children and young people, are not left with less space as town grows.” The government’s existing evidence base, by its own admission through the 2018 audit, already showed St Helier falling short of recognised benchmarks. Pressing ahead with large-scale development without refreshing that data would be, at best, optimistic and, at worst, a recipe for compounding an existing deficit. ## The NSFW Perspective There is something quietly telling about the fact that the most recent comprehensive audit of St Helier’s open space is eight years old, and that the government apparently needed a backbench amendment to prompt a commitment to updating it. When the plan is to build more homes, attract more people and redevelop half the town, knowing how much green space you are starting with seems like a fairly elementary step. Deputy Li’s proposals are modest, measurable and hard to argue against in principle. Whether the Council of Ministers embraces them warmly or treats them as an inconvenient addition to the to-do list will be worth watching when the Assembly meets on 10 November. In the meantime, the children of St Helier will continue making do with six fully public play sites between them. *Source: [Jersey Evening Post](https://jerseyeveningpost.com/news/2026/10/31/call-for-no-loss-of-st-helier-green-space-amid-regeneration-plans)*