Getting misc-y again

Up at the airport, a huge new cargo handling shed is making the area look a bit overdeveloped.

The Esplanade certainly is. Traditional old Jersey buildings got flattened for this latest monstrosity.

And why not rip up the greenery at the waterfront...

 .. to build even more temples to Finance?

- never mind, a replacement carpark on the Simply The Best site will make up for the lost spaces, the extra walk will do us good I'm sure :(

Another great idea - put a huge electricity substation in the middle of the upper park!

And rip up the grass here at Bel Royal because it's too much effort to mow it, and restore it to a 'natural look'.

On a more positive note, the First Tower station cafe has a bright and cheerful new paint job....

.. colourful even with the light behind it. I approve!

I got a laugh from spotting this at La Rocque :)

A new Condor ferry. Not sure about the pink and yellow, I have to say.

At the berth. Quite a low tide today...

This afternoon it would have been possible to walk from the beach by Gorey Castle, to Anne Port, around to Archirondel...past the end of the unfinished breakwater...

.. all the way to St Catherine on the beach...

 .. and clamber up to the slipway there. That's one heck of a low tide!

Back to town for more low tidings, and here's the castle high and dry...

 .. and looking past the fuel berth, the hermitage rock on the castle breakwater and a mine control bunker.

Remembering Gas Place car park

As the new Town Park is about to be revealed, I thought why not look back at the car park as it was - it seems quite some time ago now.

It's almost as much fun taking pictures from Google Streetview as it as in real life!


From David Place




I don't really need to label these, as you'll either recognise the scenes or - if you're really bothered - you could take a drive in Streetview for yourself!



Coming soon, photos from the last day inside the car park, and the start of work to create the car-free park.







.. and at some point, the new park of course :)

The Wasteful Garden

What is the point trying to make this hurried-through area look pretty?
As a regular Fort user walking through here, it seems to be dug up and re-planted several times a year - which seems like a big waste of time/money/manpower considering that we have recently read complaints of lack of gardening in more important areas of the island like Devon Gardens at Gorey.


Could it be because States Members have free parking here at Pier Road in the choice spot on the ground floor nearest to town? Are TTS Parks and Gardens trying to impress The House in order to keep their budget and show what a marvellous job they do? (Which they do, certainly).





Everyone who walks through here does so in a preoccupied hurry, and it's only seen by a very few islanders and visitors. Surely it would be cheaper to lay down some wood chippings and bung in some low maintenance evergreen bushes and be done with it? Trim things quickly once in a blue moon rather than spend so much time on it, as at present?





(apologies to vertigo sufferers!)


All that great manpower could be far better spent somewhere else.


UPDATE: replanted May 2009

Esplanade escapades

Just leave the car park and underpass road alone - and extend Les Jardins de la Mer!

Do we need more offices? Really? Why have these never been occupied yet?
Surely a scrutiny panel should survey the Finance Industry's needs before we get a load more built and remain empty?



Now, let's have a look at our Wonderful Waterfront...



Not the best intrusion in the middle distance, between the quayside and Westmount, but we've gotten used to it...





... shame there's no sea view from street level at Pier Road though.
Where did the bay go?!





An underpass may be an ugly thing, but ours is perfectly functional and certainly not the worst I've ever seen...







... there's considerable greenery here now.






I'm sure the parking rows could be closer together, perhaps the whole carpark could have had one-way routes to make better use of the space?





- but it's a very pleasant car park, as car parks go. And needed, too. Why scrap it?




More views of this perfectly respectable car park...









































































It's good to have a green space on the Esplanade...






.. after this dark alley of dull offices with nothing of interest to pedestrians. It's not much fun walking past corporate frontages and a bus station, is it? Not compared to shop windows.







With the carpark here, it retains the open feel that the Esplanade always had...







... and always should...







.. including the historic old sea wall.













So why ruin what's already there and working, which has bedded in nicely and feels 'Jersey' enough?

Remember how strongly The Public (who are supposed to matter, in a democracy) rejected the idea for a bridge because we simply didn't need one? There is no need to cross there.

For the same reason, we don't need to sink the road to improve access to an area which, frankly, doesn't need much access because there's nothing much there to attract people.


1) So, leave the road alone. The underground road will cost us a fortune to maintain, and if anyone really believes it will never flood, they must be some variety of crazy. Not to mention the toxic waste currently buried there which may be better left alone for now... and moving it all to La Collette is mad too, reducing the life of that reclamation. Where next? Further out to sea?
And the traffic chaos, oh boy, that's going to suck!

2) Leave the car park alone.
*No need for yet more offices,
* no need for yet more shops.
Wait and see if the vacant units in the innards of Spectrum ever get tenants, and let's see how the Island Site retail experience turns out in the old abbatoir. We don't need to suck the life out of the old town by moving it to a bland new grid of highrises.
The development will not attract people, there will be no reason to go there. Either that, or there will be less life in the historic town center. No point tarting up the streets there with the windfall from this project, if there's no-one around any more (and do we really want to waste money giving Colomberie and Cheapside a make-over?).

3) Use the remaining vacant space by Les Jardins de la Mer as open space for the public to truly enjoy. Simple, open grassland where events can be held. Raise it up 5ft so we can see the beach without a thick block sea wall in the way. Some swings and roundabouts - think of the kids for a change. Make it a pleasant area instead of yet more development we don't need.

It seems that whatever we gain from this proposed development, the gains will be squandered and used up in the costs of keeping it maintained. So what's the point?
It's as if our dear politicians have £££ signs in their eyes, so blinded by the apparent joys of getting Something For Nothing (as if!!) they simply cannot question whether that Something was worth having in the first place. It isn't.

Will common sense prevail? Sadly, I think I've got more chance of inheriting a billion from a distant relative I never knew about.