I received this email from Paul De Gruchy today and thought it was worth sharing.
Hi Rod,
Regarding your campaign here are a couple of things that I’ve been thinking about that you might want to consider.
Like you, I strongly believe in engaging with the surroundings and the heritage of Jersey (my wife has just become a trustee of Jersey Heritage). I think there are opportunities to do this all around us. One obvious one is the town park, which could be used in quite radical ways. Rather than having boring flower borders that are planted by Technical Services, why not give responsibility for areas of the park to local neighbourhoods?
It would be a variation on guerilla gardening and the plots could be used for flowers, food crops, fruit trees – whatever the community wanted (there could be small States subsidies for plants and tools but it would be much less than the costs of TTS). This would engender civic pride and also allow people to get involved in gardening when they otherwise could not. What is more, it helps prevent the park becoming a ghetto for bored kids and drunks as couples and families would be using the park much more.
Another idea, more island wide than particular to your district, is a simple policy where any new trees planted in the Island with States support should be fruit trees (apples, plums, damsons, quince etc). According to one of the people at Hamptonne, mirabelles were widely planted as roadside shrubs in the 17th century as a food crop and still fruit heavily (although I seem to be the only person who uses them, they make terrific jams, flavoured vodkas and I even made wine from them this year). Such trees could be planted at no extra cost, but it helps people connect to the environment (I notice so much more since I became a keen forager) and also could have a part to play in encouraging biodiversity and even food security. But it all helps people to realise that the environment is there to be lived in an experienced rather than simply passed through.
I know those 2 are a bit different from the typical ideas, but they would cost nothing and be really beneficial. Feel free to ignore though!
Best regards (and good luck)
Paul (de Gruchy)
I think this creative civic thinking is a great example of how with small wins you can make everyone’s life a little better and engender a greater sense of community.
Thanks Paul.