I’ve stated many times that the real heart of what I do is to help others either discover their own potential or urge them to simply get involved. The two letters following exemplify two individuals who although giving me credit actually took time to get involved and found it deeply rewarding and they changed things.
The first is from Andy Le Seeleur of ParentsForChoice.
Rod played a fundamental role in forming ParentsForChoice, a lobby group established to counter government proposals to slash grants paid to fee paying schools. At a time when a few parents took it upon themselves to try and do something to oppose the cuts, Rod volunteered his time and brought a balanced approach, which ensured the group presented its case in the best possible way.
As the political temperature rose, Rod continued to give his typical balanced view – being Chair of Governors of a States secondary school, he was able to see both sides of the argument in a highly emotive situation which enabled P4C to win respect and get their views heard at the very highest level, resulting in a positive outcome.
The next is from Laura Storey.
In 2008, just before the St Helier No 2 hustings, I noticed a planning application notice at Ann Court advising that the property was to be demolished and turned into a temporary car park.
I investigated this further and found out that the long term plans for the Ann Court site was to eventually build an 800 space multi-storey car park there to replace the parking being lost when the plans for the Millennium Park came to fruition.
My opposition to this was on many fronts so armed with my objections, I attended the hustings and raised my concerns to the candidates standing for Deputy in the St Helier No 2 district.
Rod Bryans was one of those candidates standing who, along with the other candidates disagreed with the proposed plans however, it was Rod Bryans who took the time the next day to find my contact details and call me in respect of my concerns and the advice he gave me that stands in my mind was for me to find like minded people who also had concerns and to pull together in numbers to make our voice heard.
Despite Rod being narrowly beaten in the 2008 elections, he kept in contact with me making suggestions of people to contact who might support my cause but his underlying message was to unite with others. It was Rod who gave me the confidence to contact residents in the area and put together a petition objecting to the planned multi-storey car park.
Rod would pop by as I was stood in Queen Street on Saturdays in all sorts of weather encouraging me to look back on how much I had achieved by obtaining support of both residents and Deputies, to fight for the cause. On many occasions Rod was there in the background encouraging me, even when I got down heartened, to persevere.
The outcome was to lodge a 2,588 signature petition to the States of Jersey against the building of a multi-storey car park at Ann Court in November 2009 and in March 2010, the States of Jersey agreed not to pursue the building of a multi-storey car park on the site.
Whilst I had the support of residents and Deputies, I still look back with immense gratitude to Rod for taking the time to picking up the telephone after the hustings in 2008 and encouraging me to take those first steps to fight for what I believed.
Thank you and well done to both of them.