Jersey netballers plea for new home in Royal Square protest
Jersey netballers have braved the rain to push the island's government to find the sport a permanent home.The Jersey Netball Association (JNA) said the sport was "in crisis" after losing its current base at Les Ormes, which is being turned into padel courts, and were instead offered 27 hours per month at the £8.4m new sports hall at Oakfield in St Helier.President Julie Andrews, who was at a protest in Royal Square, said it was time to "make a noise" because the decline of netball was "crucial and it's so imminent".Constable Andy Jehan, the minister with responsibility for sport, said: "We need to sit down around a table and find a solution."
Jehan said he welcomed seeing people who were passionate about sports at the demonstration.He said the government had "accommodated" late requests for change from the association, including moving the show court.However, the JNA said the 27 hours a month offered Oakfield was less than a quarter of the time it gets at Les Ormes.Other sports have also raised concerns over how the new Oakfield facility would be shared.
Mrs Andrews said the decision was "devastating", adding: "We're a female sport, the second highest sport in the island, and we don't have a home."[We need] somewhere that we can call our own, we can run our own programmes, we can generate our own income."Mrs Andrews said the association had been going for 80 years and had seen many participate in its programmes."That's all going to be crushed," she said."We know the impact that we have on all these youngsters."
Samantha Salzone, JNA netball development officer, the size of the turnout showed "how big netball is on the island"."The girls here that have come along today are the ones that are going to get impacted, it's the school age girls that are going to lose their pathways," she said."This is a sporting crisis across the island - over the last few years you've seen a reduction of facilities," she said.
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