Former parish constable Jonathan Le Moignan has taken on the post and chaired his first meeting on Monday. He took over from Richard Heaume, who had served the parish for 47 years and has been dean for 19 of those.
Historically, the role of the dean was taken up by the longest-serving member of the douzaine but in more recent years, an election has taken place.
Mr Le Moignan, a retired businessman and professional pilot, has been on the douzaine for more than a decade and took on the post of dean after winning a contested election.
‘It’s a real privilege to be elected dean – we’ve got a great parish,’ he said.
‘We have two excellent constables and also a very strong douzaine, mostly made up of business people and professionals.’
Engaging with parishioners will be a focus during his three-year term as dean and he hoped emailing out newsletters would help to improve communications within Forest.
‘What I would like to achieve is to improve parish communications,’ he added. ‘To do more to bring people together in the community is our main aim.’
He added that he also hoped to improve the parish’s assets to give value for money to ratepayers.
The role of the dean is to lead the parish assembly, he said, but everyone in the douzaine had an equal say.
‘We’re a very democratic douzaine. Everyone has their say and has an equal vote – it’s the way it is and the way it should be.
‘We’re not all older people and we’re very ambitious. We want to build on what we’ve been doing for the last six or seven years.’
Some douzaines across the island have seen a lack of community engagement in recent years, and although Mr Le Moignan did not think this was an issue in Forest, he hoped to see more people getting involved nonetheless.
‘It’s definitely something we would like to improve on,’ he said.
‘We would like to get more parishioners involved with community spirit. I would love everyone in the parish to get more involved.’
He said meetings were attended by more people when there were issues to discuss, but the parish also came together in celebration.
‘When we do things, the parish comes together – Liberation Day last year was a tremendous example of that,’ he said.
‘This isn’t a closed shop and we look forward to engaging with parishioners.’
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