Sarah Howard

Candidate for Connétable in Grouville

“Your Voice, Our Parish Community, Our Island” 

I am seeking election as your Connétable. I intend to be Connétable for the whole Parish, listening to all.  

I have over 30 years’ experience as a Chartered Accountant, recently running my own businesses. I have led large teams, been responsible for reporting, planning & financial modelling of revenue budgets of more than £200million and capital projects of up to £500million. My roles include senior leadership positions in the Finance Industry, Education, and Health & Community Services. I am passionate about learning from our experiences.  

 Community Aims 

Collaborative Decision Making 

  • More Parish Assemblies will be called and specialised working groups established. Together we will make decisions on the most important questions faced by our community, including the provision of affordable housing, population and “Our Hospital”. 
  • Accessibility in attending & voting at Assemblies will be improved. Through Lockdown we learned it is possible to continue business online and the importance of physical meetings in sharing ideas and making decisions. We will continue live streaming Parish Assemblies. We will adopt the best practice of other Parishes and keep our Assembly ballot box open for longer. 
  •  As the recent Requēte contributed to the preservation of our wetlands, I will ensure that your collective voice is represented, heard and, to the best of my ability, acted upon in the States.  

Financial Prudence 

  • I have a proven record in controlling public expenditure. I will challenge both Island and Parish costs. We will start by challenging the suggested 7% increase in rates from kerbside recycling. 
  • We will develop a Parish four-year strategy. We will find ways of generating value from our resources, supporting our community and allowing its landscape to thrive. 
  • The strategy will guide us in preparing and delivering an Annual Parish plan. Each year we will monitor the reduction in carbon footprint, celebrating value added to the community. 

Improving Road Safety 

  • We will adopt a Parish framework from the 2021 Island Road Safety Report. This will provide safer routes to school, work and shops. Implementation will be made in partnership with commercial and agricultural road users. 
  • We will expand our safer routes into neighbouring Parishes, supporting an Island wide Safe Systems Approach. 
  • Improving road safety will have a positive impact on health and wellbeing. Inroads will be made into Jersey’s biggest carbon emissions, those from transport. 

Keeping Grouville Special 

  • Our coastline and countryside make Grouville special. We must maintain and develop them as a legacy for future generations.  
  • We will investigate carbon offset schemes in the Parish with Island wide benefit.  
  • We will support the provision of Island wide housing needs in the short, medium and longer term. We will find sustainable ways to provide homes for the younger and older generations. 
  • We will support Parish farmers and other business owners to thrive within our social foundation and environmental ceiling. 
  • The Municipality will learn and lead carbon reporting. The community will better understand its carbon footprint.  

Together we can and will make the right decisions. 

Names of Proposers and Seconders

  1. Peter William Hargreaves
  2. Ben Edward Shenton
  3. Leslie Norman
  4. Fabienne Coudrais
  5. Ian Mitchell
  6. Denis De Gruchy
  7. Clare Yvonne Gruchy
  8. Bob Tompkins
  9. Linda Houze
  10. Alison Hand