Push to reopen reuse centre at La Collette

Thursday 24 August 2023

A St. Helier politician is making a bid to get the re-use centre at La Collette open again by the end of this year to help people struggling with the cost of living crisis.

The centre has been closed since charity Acorn left in October 2021.

Deputy Catherine Curtis is formally asking Infrastructure Minister Tom Binet to “to take the necessary steps” to reinstate the building, with the centre “to be operated by Government of Jersey employees”.

The Reform member’s call echoes one previously made by environmental group Transition in Jersey, who said in July that the building close to the entrance of the Household Reuse and Recycling Centre should be reopened as a place to leave and pick up items which are better shared than recycled.

Pictured: Reform Jersey's Deputy Catherine Curtis.

In a report outlining her proposal, Deputy Curtis writes: “The reinstatement of the re-use centre under Government management could assist those living in low-income households and those who are struggling with the current cost of living crisis. 

“A re-use centre will provide a facility where these people will be able to collect items they need (for example, furniture and children’s toys) for free that would otherwise be out of financial reach for them.”

She adds that staff currently working at the recycling centre have suggested that one or two new staff members would be required to manage the re-use centre efficiently.

Deputy Curtis’s proposal is due to be debated in September.

Although Acorn and its parent charity Jersey Employment Trust won a competitive tender from the Government to run the reuse centre when it opened in 2017, it found that, after the pandemic, it was more efficient to consolidate its collection activities at its main base in Trinity rather than be split over two sites.