In brief: Around 100 St Peter residents attended a public meeting with Infrastructure Minister Jonathan Renouf to voice frustrations over a large sewage attenuation tank project in the parish. Concerns ranged from noise and dust to disrupted well water supplies and poor communication from the department. The minister acknowledged the issues and pledged to improve how residents are kept informed.
A Parish at the End of Its Tether
It takes quite a lot to get 100 people out to a parish hall meeting on a Tuesday evening, but the residents of St Peter managed it. The draw? A giant sewage storage tank, ongoing roadworks, clouds of dust, and the creeping suspicion that nobody in government was listening. The Jersey Evening Post reports that Infrastructure Minister Jonathan Renouf and officials from his department attended the 90-minute gathering at the parish hall to hear what parishioners had to say, and by all accounts there was plenty to say.
Deputy Arlene Maltman, who was present, described the turnout as a clear indicator of the mood on the ground. “The number of people who came out showed the high level of angst about the project,” she told the JEP. “Residents are fed up and it was good that they had the chance to express themselves.” That is a diplomatic way of saying the meeting was not exactly a celebration of government efficiency.
Dust, Noise and Disrupted Wells
The attenuation tank, which forms part of a broader upgrade to St Peter’s drainage network, is intended to increase capacity for future housing development and reduce flood risk. Worthy goals, no doubt. But the practical reality for those living nearby has been rather less inspiring. Specific complaints included noise and dust from the construction site, with some residents saying they were unable to sit outside their own homes during the summer months.
Adding insult to injury, an undertaking to provide window cleaning for affected residents had apparently not been carried out. Deputy Renouf told the JEP this was believed to be linked to a scheduling change caused by the August bank holiday. A missed bank holiday in the diary, then, as the explanation for why people’s windows remained caked in construction dust. One imagines that went down well.
More seriously, residents who rely on well water reported that their supplies had been affected by contractors pumping out groundwater during the works. Deputy Renouf acknowledged this was an “important” matter and said he had not previously been aware of it, adding that work was underway to identify solutions. The fact that a minister was learning about a significant impact on residents’ water supplies at a public meeting, rather than through his own department’s monitoring, will raise eyebrows.
The Bigger Picture: Homes, History and Highways
St Peter Constable Richard Vibert, who was unable to attend the meeting as he was on holiday, issued a written statement acknowledging that “the project has had a significant impact on some of the residents and will continue to do so over the next few months.” He was, however, keen to place the disruption in context, noting that without the infrastructure upgrade, the planned 170 family homes in St Peter and further homes in St Ouen could not be delivered.
Constable Vibert was also candid about how Jersey arrived at this point. “Sadly we are in this position because of the failure to upgrade our infrastructure over the last couple of decades,” he said. It is a fair observation, and one that will resonate with anyone who has watched the island’s housing ambitions repeatedly collide with the reality of ageing pipes and drains that were never built for the demands now being placed on them.
Residents also raised the impact of long-running roadworks in the centre of the parish, which had closed the Grand Route de St Pierre for much of the year before their recent completion. Local businesses and residents bore the brunt of that disruption too, making the cumulative effect on the parish feel particularly heavy.
Source: Jersey Evening Post
