Decision on half-a-million funding for Elephant Park revamp deferred

Wednesday 27 March 2024

St Brelade parishioners have postponed a vote on how to fund a £500,000 revamp of the Elephant Park over concerns about a lack of detailed information.

The proposal brought forward by Connétable Mike Jackson at a parish meeting last night involved allocating £250,000 from the property reserve fund and securing a commercial loan of up to £250,000.

The proposition to fund update the facilities at the park was deferred at a Parish Assembly meeting amid concerns raised by parishioners about the limited information available about the project.

While some visuals had been shared online ahead of the meeting, the Assembly noted that no information had been provided from a financial perspective, nor was it clear how the parish rates would be impacted.

Concerns were also raised that too much money was going towards the toilets and sewage system and not enough towards the actual park, which sits next to the Off the Rails Café along the Railway Walk.

Deputy of St Brelade, Jonathan Renouf, said that a working party would be set up to undertake a review and would report back by the end of the year.

It comes after plans to upgrade the park – including renovating the existing toilets, installing a canopy, and create an accessible path from the car park to the toilets – were already unanimously approved by the Planning Committee last year.