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The battle lines are being drawn in one of the biggest decisions facing's Jersey's politicians in recent years.
This week they are being asked to agree the funding for a new £466million hospital, the biggest public building project the island has ever undertaken.
Yesterday, three of the most senior hospital staff sent an open letter to all members urging them to support the plans, and warning of "serious consequences" to the health of local patients if they did not. Amongst other concerns they said that equipment in the current hospital often failed, it was difficult to control infections and there may be a shortage of beds over winter.
Now Reform Jersey has said that its three elected members won't be supporting the plans in this week's debate. The party has decided that the concerns raised over the disruption the building process will cause, the scale of the design as opposed to what was originally put to States Members and the funding mechanism proposed are too great to support the project at this time.
Reform Jersey party chairman, Deputy Sam Mézec, said - “From the beginning, the Council of Ministers has shown incompetence and a lack of leadership on both the choice of site and its funding. We acknowledge the huge amount of work that has gone into this project and we share the desire for a hospital which will be fit for purpose for generations to come, but we cannot in good conscience sign off on something which we believe may cause huge problems down the line.”
“The government has not followed the advice it was given by the Fiscal Policy Panel, has not adequately answered the concerns about the disruption that will be caused at the hospital whilst it is turned into a construction site for 6 years; moreover the design we are now being shown does not resemble what we believe we initially passed earlier this year. This project is too important to make mistakes.”
Some of their concerns have also been echoed by the former diplomat, Sir Nigel Broomfield, who has also written to all States Members to oppose the plans:
"The height, scale and massing of the proposed Hospital is dramatically and uniquely out of scale with anything in the Town and is equal to 25 Cyril Le Marquand houses at 19 storeys high. It will sit at the so called ‘Western Gateway’ to St Helier, which the Island Plan seeks to improve. It will be the first building visitors to the town will see as they come in from the airport and will give St Helier an industrial impression."
He had circulated pictures to illustrate his ideas, which are at odds with those accompanying the official plans:
Pictured: Pictures of the proposed new hospital circulated by Sir Nigel Broomfield.
"The effect on the rest of the town is impossible to judge at the moment. But it would be safe to assume that the States and other property owners will not be slow to take advantage of this planning windfall and build up to 47 metres."
This week, States Members will be asked to agree the funding for the new hospital, which Ministers want to achieve through a combination of up to £275million borrowing, and using the island's reserves. Senator Philip Ozouf has put forward alternative plans which would see the existing bond to pay for social housing used for the hospital instead. There are also amendments from Deputy Jeremy Macon and Constable Chris Taylor limiting the budget of up to £392million with a £74million contingency.
Pictured: one of the official photos of the proposed hospital.
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