Cafe owner says pier plans are 'pie in the sky'

A café owner in Gorey has said plans to improve the pier "are a bit pie in the sky" as other businesses owners have expressed concerns over plans to update the area.

In March, people were invited to speak to organisers of Gorey Pier Design Code - described as "a community-led manifesto" for the area.

Separately, Ports of Jersey is due to start demolition work in May, to remove the landing stage at the pier and tackle long-term structural issues.

People in Gorey have welcomed these repairs but some like Tracy Benn, who owns Café Louise, have expressed frustration the work is happening during the summer season - Ports of Jersey said work should finish by July.

Benn said the repair work on the pier had been needed for a long time.

She said "it's paramount" and "the facilities down there haven't really been maintained for about three decades".

"It will be disruptive and this work should have been done outside of our tourist calendar, so it's been not a very good decision by Ports of Jersey."

Jersey Harbour Master, Captain William Saddler from Ports of Jersey said the demolition work at the end of the pier was "really important" for the area.

He said: "It's a very controlled project - taking the lending station apart bit by bit and then removing it in standard building skips."

Saddler added: "I hope it will take ten weeks from the start of the work" and "we'll definitely want to be off site come the beginning of July."

He said waste from the demolition work would be taken away in skips between two and three times-a-day to minimise disruption to residents and businesses in the area.

Benn was also critical of the Gorey Pier design code, with particular concern that the plans could result in parking spaces being removed.

"The majority of the businesses think that the potential loss of parking spaces could be very detrimental."

"The actual plans themselves I think are a bit 'pie in the sky', you know.

"We are Gorey at the end of the day, we're not an Ile de Re in France," she added.

Antony Gibb from Historic Environment Consultants, worked on the design code.

He said the meeting in March was to gather feedback on design prompts from UK firm, Create Streets, and to find out what residents want Gorey to look like.

"It looks a bit tired and a bit sad at the moment... everybody agrees that we want to do something," he said.

He emphasised that the design ideas are very much in the early stages, plans would only be drawn up once there was agreement and, even then, money would need to be raised to fund it.

The design code initiative has been funded by the government's Creative Island Partnership Heritage Strategy Grant, with sponsorship from Ports of Jersey and Antony Gibb's company.

Gibb said the plans were not about removing parking.

He said: "It's clear that boat owners need to get to the pier, residents need to park, you don't want to disadvantage any of those people, but just having a streetscape dominated by cars is not what we all want."

He added that the focus of the designs was "investing in the future".

"If, as an island, we're serious about tourism, we need to make places look nice for tourists to come and visit."

The owner of the Dolphin Hotel in Gorey, Renzo Martin, welcomed some of the suggestions in the plan.

"I think it's an excellent idea to improve Gorey Pier," he said.

"It's something different and Jersey needs something different".

Martin added: "It will bring business to Gorey provided we don't lose any parking facilities because if you lose a parking facility, then Gorey will be dead, completely."

He was pragmatic about how repair work at the end of the pier might affect summer visitor numbers.

"There's nothing we can do about it so it's the sooner, the better, for everybody's point of view".

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