Music promoter explains what she would change about Jersey

Friday 02 December 2016

In the latest in our series on Jersey folk and what they would do to improve the Island……we ask concert promoter Caroline Strachan for the five things she would change, if she had the chance.

Caroline is responsible for putting on the Big Gig shows every summer and has worked with stars such as Billy Ocean, Marc Almond and the Human League.

“First of all, air travel. Unless you can book months in advance and for a flight at 6am in February, you are paying a heck of a lot for flights. I’ve had to pay as much as £300-plus for a return flight to London in the summer, which is way, way too much. It can’t be good for the Island and it can’t be good for tourism for flights to be so expensive.

“The Tourism Development Fund is supposed to give a helping hand to businesses like mine. I would like to see a level playing field because I have seen precious little evidence of it so far. I have received a very small amount of help from the fund and yet I am exactly the sort of business they should be helping. It’s a shame because I don’t get the impression the applications are all dealt with in the same manner.

“The former BHS site has been earmarked for yet another top of the range clothing store and yet St Helier has plenty of these. This location is now owned by Sports Direct. I don’t understand it. We already have plenty of luxury priced stores and very few ‘Primark’ style ones.   

“I’m a dog lover and dog walker and surely there must be space in St Ouen Bay in the height of summer for dog walkers to be able to enjoy the beautiful Jersey scenery. At the moment, despite it being five miles long, there is nowhere. That can’t be right. Give us a small area on the beach, in summer, where we too can enjoy the scenery.

“The St Peter’s valley cycle track has cost a fortune and I see it all the time, there are precious few cyclists using it. I would much rather the money was spent on customs officers, who I gather are under threat for their jobs. These people do an incredible job trying to keep drugs off the streets of Jersey and we should embrace them and give them more personnel, not less. Rather than spending taxpayers’ money on cycle tracks which few people use, employ more customs officers to make it even harder to bring drugs to the Island.”