St Helier loses 277 parking spaces over a decade

There are more than 4,200 parking spaces available for motorists visiting St Helier in Jersey

There are 277 fewer parking spaces in Jersey's town than a decade ago, the government has confirmed.

It said in 2012 there were 4,501 spaces available for motorists in St Helier, and in 2023 there are 4,224 spaces.

Concerns were noted when it was announced Patriotic Street car park would be closed for refurbishment, further reducing parking in St Helier.

Work will be done between April and September, closing two levels of the car park at a time.

Patriotic Street car park will be closed for maintenance, two floors at a time, between April and September

Deputy Jonathan Renouf, Jersey's Environment Minister, said he would find it "hard to justify" additional parking spaces in town, given the government's current strategy aimed at reducing the use of private vehicles "wherever possible".

He said: "We've got a situation in town where we've got I think it's over 4,000 parking spaces, and that has declined a small amount over the last few years, but not that much, 250 places, less I think than it was.

"On top of that, we have a clear strategy to try and reduce the number of vehicle journeys into town."

Mr Renouf said the government wanted to reduce the number of vehicle journeys for air quality reasons, for carbon reduction reasons, for reducing congestion reasons, and to make town a "more liveable place".

"I think we need to focus particularly on people who need to drive into town to park, because for example they may have mobility issues, they may be doing collections of large items, or they maybe have families and so on."

Mr Renouf said the government had subsidised bus services for young people and elderly people, and had launched an e-bike subsidy scheme.

Café owner George Robertson said there had been less air pollution since the Ann Place car park was replaced by buildings.

He said: "Noise pollution and air pollution and cars that were passing Café Jac, they would accelerate from the likes of Bath Street, then break, creating break dust from the junction.

"Once you lose that noise and once you lose that air pollution, you can really tell the difference and you'd never want it back again, you'd never wish for it."

Mr Robertson said: "I would say a high percentage of the traffic in town is people looking for a parking space, which there's a certain irony to that."

States member Deputy Lyndon Farnham said car parks that were knocked down should be replaced.

He said: "I think parking arrangements need to be improved for both residents and shoppers.

"I certainly think the town centre needs all the help it can get with modern shopping trends, I think part of the problem is planning guidelines now require less parking and that's forcing residents into public areas."

Mr Farnham said he believed the government could provide "cheaper or even free parking" to make it easier for shoppers.

"I would say we need conveniently located parking," he said.

Follow BBC Jersey on Twitter and Facebook. Send your story ideas to [e-mail].