From Ken Taylor.
IT is 2015 and Imagine Jersey rears its ugly head again, but it’s not all bad.
The new apartment block in front of Elizabeth Castle is almost complete and Dandara have taken over the Planning department, the Esplanade Quarter is now finished and the 15 high-rise office blocks are expected to be filled by 2040.
The population has now reached 91,000 the Chief Minister said, but we shall be sure of that when we have had a census in 2021 (sounds familiar).
On to the traffic situation, and that is not too bad as several cars in the gridlock in Beresford Street moved up more than 20 yards yesterday.
So with the shopkeepers bringing their wares out to the cars in the queue, the scheme is working quite well.
24 more hotels have been converted to apartments, but the Radisson and L’Horizon are still open for conference parties.
The Tourism department are still in their glass premises and waiting for their new office in St Peter, near the Airport, as with the present traffic situation, a tourist may not be able to get to town, especially if he was on one of the four-day breaks.
However, he would get a free copy of What Used to be on Where. We had three tourists last year and, who knows, they may come back, so best to keep the department open.
By the way, the old Tourism office, which was changed to toilets, has been sold to Ajax catering who are converting it to a café.
Harcourt are alive and well, and have brought in a firm of consultants (sounds familiar) who suggest that we should have a deeper underpass under the new one to cope with the traffic congestion there.
The finance industry is also making big strides, despite the recession, and now employs around 79,000.
The last two Jersey cows were shipped out to Dubai a few days ago, although, of course, we still have those in West’s Centre, and the coastline building plan is now almost complete, with only two spaces left at Grosnez and Devil’s Hole, but with 640 millionaires now living here, these will soon be filled.
Jersey is to host the Island Games in 2060, so Fort Regent pool will be useful again after all.
When Chief Minister Ozouf took over in 2013, he said: ‘I know many people are not happy with Jersey today, but things could be worse’ – and he was quite right, they are.
