TheSt Helier TOWN CRIER THE OFFICIAL PARISH OF ST HELIER MAGAZINE Millennium Town Park © Danrok St Helier Care Homes • Who was Howard Davis? • From a small acorn Don’t let life pass you by • Community in Bloom • Bowled over at Westmount Historic St Helier: O for a muse of fire • Recycling updates Delivered by Jersey Post to 19,000 homes and businesses every month. Designed and printed in Jersey by MailMate Publishing working in partnership with the Parish of St Helier. Contents Welcome News from the Parish homes and nurseries 4 to the April Parish matters 4 Community in Bloom 6 edition Don’t let life pass you by 9 of The French Connection 11 Bowled over at Westmount 12 The Constable’s comment 13 From a small acorn 14 Town matters 15 Town Crier St Helier schools 16 At last the winter’s storms are behind us and we can start to enjoy the parks and gardens of the Parish, our Recycling updates 16 private gardens if we have one, or balcony or Care Homes in the Parish 17 allotment. The April Town Crier’s gardening issue Parish notice board 20 includes an update on the Parish’s allotments and the 21 activities of our Community in Bloom Group. Our team Historic St Helier of Parish gardeners will be working flat out to ensure Jèrriais by Geraint Jennings 24 that the floral displays are ready to add colour and attractiveness to the shopping precincts, and they will A step into the future 25 also be welcoming a group of gardeners from the city of Who was Howard Davis? 26 Rennes in Brittany who will be visiting St Helier this Dates for your diary 33 month after staff from the St Helier Parks and Gardens Department’s fact-finding trip last year. This month’s The St Helier Gazette 34 edition is the 50th issue since the Town Crier changed from being an occasional newsletter photocopied in the Town Hall to a professionally produced monthly magazine whose printing (now by a local company, Mailmate) and distribution (now by Jersey Post) is entirely funded through advertising. This month’s cover photo captures the iconic water curtain in the Millennium Town Park. The St Helier Town Crier is published by the Parish of St Helier in association with MailMate. Parish of St Helier: Town Hall, PO Box 50, York Street, St Helier, Jersey, JE4 8PA www.sthelier.je Editorial contact: Annie Le Noury T: (01534) 811821 E: [email protected] MailMate: Le Quai Bisson, Le Boulevard, St Aubin, Jersey, JE3 8JT E: [email protected] If you like the look of our magazine and think it would be the right place for your company to advertise please contact Phil Osborne on 01534 493300 or email [email protected]. Copyright notice: 2013©Parish of St Helier. The entire content of this magazine is protected by copyright. All rights are reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise with prior written consent of the copyright owner. Reprint details: Reprints of articles can be obtained by contacting the publishers. Disclaimer: While the Parish of St Helier and their contributors to The St Helier Town Crier have provided the information contained in this magazine in good faith, they accept no responsibility, financial or otherwise, for any action taken by any other party as a result of the information provided. Independent and appropriate advice should always be sought on such matters. The views expressed written in this magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Parish of St Helier or MailMate. Whilst every effort is taken to ensure accuracy, the Parish of St Helier and MailMate accept no responsibility for errors or omissions that may occur. 3 NEWS FROM THE Parish homes and nurseries AVRANCHES DAY NURSERY Children from the Forget Me Not and Sunflower rooms at Avranches Day Nursery enjoyed their Forest School outing to the woods recently, where they listened to the Gruffalo story and then went on a treasure hunt to track down all the animals in the book. A round-up of the latest news and events from the Town Hall, Parish departments and our associated clubs and organisations. NEW MR, MISS AND JUNIOR MISS ST HELIER ANNOUNCED! aturday 8th March saw the Parish's new Mr, Miss and Junior Miss St Helier crowned at an event held at the STown Hall. The competition was judged by Mrs Jane Skelhorn, the Town Hall's Events Manager; Steve Webb, Manager of the Mayfair Hotel; Carla Gouveia (ex-Miss St Helier 2012); Deputy Richard Rondel and Mrs Debbie Maindonald, and there was stiff competition. The Mr St Helier crown was won by Michael Franca, Miss St Helier was won by Anya Skinner and our new Junior Miss for 2014 was won by Samantha Sekirsky. The Parish wishes its new ambassadors all the best for the year ahead, and thanks go to last year's Miss St Helier, Kelly Ahearn, Jr Miss St Helier, Kelly Pontes, and Mr St Helier, Conrad Duckworth for all their help and assistance over the last year. Left to right, Mr St Helier, Michael Franca, Junior Miss, Thanks also to the organisers of the evening, without whom it Samantha Sekirsky, and Miss St Helier, Anya Skinner would not be possible to host this event. 4 The Parish tree team WEDNESDAY 5TH MARCH has had a very busy saw two new deputies being voted in for winter period dealing with the trees damaged due to last month’s St Helier in by-elections high winds. The photo shows Richard Allo (who was out working In St Helier No 2 with Paul Mauger, Charlie Prouten district Sam Mézec and Kevin Roberts) removing a topped the poll with damaged limb on an evergreen 277 votes, beating the oak that was hanging over other three candidates the public walk at as follows: La Collette. • Ian Philpott – 99 votes • Bernard Manning – 87 votes • Paul Huelin – 65 votes St Helier's other successful candidate was Nick Le Cornu, who won the by-election in No 1 district with a total of 248 votes against the following opposition: • Gordon Forrest – 201 votes • Paul Le Claire – 178 votes • Roy Travert – 70 votes • Maureen Morgan – 51 votes The Parish extends its thanks to all staff and municipality volunteers who helped out at the by-election. continued overleaf A proposal for planting berries, together with herbs and salads, continued is currently being worked on for the flower beds outside the Parish matters from page 5 Town Church. It’s hoped that as per last year parishioners will help themselves when passing through and reap the benefits of COMMUNITY IN BLOOM fresh produce. A date has now been fixed for the judging of the Parish in marks the centenary of the outbreak of the Bloom categories, which will take place on Friday 4th July, First World War. Many individuals and 2014 whilst the schools competition has a new theme for this year’s organisations are keen to commemorate this event in some St Helier Green Fingers Competition, which is to build a way, and one of the most powerful symbols of that conflict is, freestanding scarecrow with a specified percentage of planted of course, the poppy. An annual species of disturbed ground, material. The scarecrows will then be collected and placed on the poppy thrived in the trenches, bomb craters and tank public display throughout St Helier Week. Schools will be tracks of war-torn Europe, springing up from buried seed. contacted directly to help organise this event. These days, fields of poppies are a rare spectacle, thanks to improved agricultural seed cleaning and herbicide use. The Parish, supported by the Bloom Group, has identified a site to develop a field of poppies and an interpretation of a WW1 trench to commemorate the events of 1914. The States of Jersey Development Company administer the site and have given kind permission. Local companies are showing support for this project, as well as valuable advice and guidance being provided by Howard Baker and Geomarine amongst other authorities. The project will give the opportunity for schools to visit the site, as well as creating a poppy field in the heart of St Helier as a mark of remembrance. We will be planting a ‘Monet mix’ – colourful, easy to grow and great for pollinating insects, which thrives on most soils and, sown at the end of March, will be in flower by June. Formby Thursday 15 May 2pm + 8pm ‘Formby’ follows George Formby’s rise from awkward stable boy to one of Britain’s biggest stars. In a unique one-man performance Ewan Wardrop plays the role of Formby, as well as all the key characters involved in this fascinating slice of his life. ‘Formby’ is a funny, touching and thoughtful look at the life of an essentially ordinary man with an extraordinary talent. This sensational production features many of Formby’s classic hits brilliantly recreated by Wardrop on the Ukulele, including: Blackpool Rock, Leaning on a Lamp-post, When I'm Cleaning Windows, TT Races, and many more. Tickets: £15 (£9 students) Members: £12.75 (£7.65 students) Box Office: 700444 www.artscentre.je Are all your clothes too tight? Are you tired and lacking energy? Do you feel self-conscious about your weight? Would you like more vitality? Join Slimming Together NOW and make your weight-loss goals a reality. Results start when you do! Slimming Together’s Current Class Schedule: Mondays at 6.30pm in the Eastern Good Companions Club, St.