Visite Royale

  

Yesterday we had a Visite Royale in Saint Helier. This visit of inspection by the Royal Court comes round every 6 years (the Court visits 2 Parishes a year). The Assembly Room was laid out to allow the Court to sit in session with the Bailiff and Jurats (along with the Greffier, HM Solicitor-General and other officials) facing the Parish officials. HE the Lieutenant-Governor also attended as an observer.

After the prayers and formalities, the Connétable presented his report on the Parish accounts, and mentioned certain matters the Parish is planning for the future (including municipal modernisation, for which he gave me credit - or blame). The Bailiff then asked a number of questions on the accounts, which were answered with the help of the Director of Finance.

The Roads Inspectors were called up and quizzed on what they had been doing in the course of the inspection of roads (since the answer is in effect not very much as the elected office serves almost no practical purpose nowadays, there was some tactful generalisation).

The Chef de Police gave a rundown of the activites of the Honorary Police with plenty of facts and figures, and was questioned by the Court.

The nominated Voyeurs were called up and sworn in. I'm very pleased that we had a balanced panel of 6 women and 6 men, as I had proposed this.

After the Court adjourned, disrobed and returned for a teabreak, it was time to board the minibuses (the Court travelled in limousines) and off we went to look at some problems the Parish hoped the Court could solve by some alfresco instant judgment.

In theory the Voyeurs are supposed to get together once sworn in and then take the Court to inspect some roads on a route that:
a) must not go outside the Parish boundaries, and
b) must not double back on itself (i.e. go over the same road twice)

However the Parish and the Court agree a route in advance and the Parish provides the relevant information so that everything should go smoothly.

With the police escort the convoy of black limousines and minibuses and other vehicles rather gave the impression of a grand funeral cortège.

The first stop was at the top of Queen's Road at the junction of Saint John's Road where the spokesman of the Voyeurs explained that the Parish was requesting the Court to vest ownership in a chemin public of unknown ownership in the Parish. The Court agreed that it appeared that the Parish, having maintained the path, probably owned it but to safeguard the interests of anyone who might come forward with a claim, the Parish was to post a notice asking anyone to come forward and if no-one comes forward in the course of 6 months then the Court would be satisfied that the Parish had taken reasonable steps to establish undisputed ownership.

The remaining questions were regarding trees causing problems with roads and whether the Court would order that the trees be cut down. The first tree was measured and condemned. The official axe was used to give it some symbolic chops to mark it. The rest of the trees benefited from some judicial lenience.

So the Parish got half of the judgments in its favour, and although the other trees were not condemned on the spot, the Court ruled in ways that were actually quite useful to the Parish. All in all, a good day - and the weather was excellent.