Select a region
Last week, the Government made a £6.5m bid for St. Helier land to help construct the highway to the £800m new hospital – but there’s much more to the deal, which could actually cost the Government more than £8m, than may first appear…
After months of careful negotiations, the deal was put to the Procureurs du Bien Public, who have official responsibility for taking care of Parish money.
It had been a long road getting to that point.
In February, parishioners voted to stop all work on Westmount Road until the Parish had “confirmed at a further assembly that it has received the details it requires”. Four months later, when the Our Hospital team went back to the parish to ask if it now had the information it needed to back the proposal, the answer was no.
165 parishioners told planners and politicians to go back to the drawing board while those happy with the proposals barely reached double figures, prompting the man whose 'requête' led to the initial assembly, Advocate Olaf Blakeley, to call for the Minister responsible for the hospital project, Senator Lyndon Farnham, to step aside.
After the hospital funding plans got approval, the Government sought the endorsement of the Parish, as the primary landowner involved. However, Constable Simon Crowcroft officially refused to give the Parish's approval, leaving the Environment Minister to decide whether it's in the public interest to accept it anyway.
Now, the time has come for parishioners to decide again if they're willing to accept the Government's offer for their land.
It consists of £6.5m for land, plus a string of other pledges, like a a new home for the Jersey Bowling Club and £1m to build it. But it also involves acceptance of some losses too, like a significant number of public parking spaces.
This Wednesday, the Roads Committee will hear from the Government about their final vision for Westmount Road, then the following Wednesday at 19:00, a Parish Assembly will be held where votes will be cast.
Ahead of that, Express dug into the detail of the deal...
The Government is offering St. Helier £6,530,845 in total for its land.
The figure was based on a valuation by a RICS property surveyor from Quérée Property Consultants, which was recruited by the Parish to give an official estimate of how much the land desired by the Government is worth. Here's a breakdown....
Currently providing 44 car parking and six motorcycle parking spaces, this 0.29 acre zone is the most expensive of all of the land acquisitions.
This 0.64 acre area includes 69 car parking spaces in total (55 car disc parking spaces, 11 parking spaces as part of the Cheapside Residents Parking Zone, three disabled parking spaces), 10 motorcycle spots and and loops for 12 bicycles.
Approximately 227m long, this road features 42 parking spaces (26 in the Cheapside Residents Parking Zone, eight visitor spaces, five two-hour paycard spots, one doctor space and two unloading spaces), and hoops for four bikes.
These are all to be relocated with the agreement of the Parish. The Government has been asked to bear the cost of the relocation.
Mainly headland, this area includes the pergola structures and pathways to the back of People's Park.
The Government has pledged that this link between the lower and upper parts of Westmount Road will be reinstated, though the location may be slightly amended to suit the changed road width and elevation.
the Government will also reinstate this link.
this section of land is apparently required to enable the realignment of Westmount Road.
The Government will purchase the pathway adjacent to Westmount Road alongside People’s Park in order to create the hospital highway. This 0.22 acre zone includes two parking spaces on the north side adjacent to the junction of Westmount Road and Cheapside.
This section of land crosses the children's playground, and the Government has agreed to cover the cost of any adjustments/replacements needed in the play area as a result of the hospital highway works.
This section adjacent to Clos Vaze is currently used as a 280sqm open green area.
This section is required for the realignment of the feeder road from the Esplanade to St. Aubin's Road.
The Parish-owned land on which the Jersey Bowling Club has been sitting since 1912 is not being ‘sold’ to Government, but forms part of a ‘land swap’ deal.
Pictured: The Government is offering the Bowling Club £1m for a new premises at Warwick Farm, where Jersey Hemp is based.
Its premises currently includes a clubhouse, bowling green, 20 car parking spaces, gardens and workshops.
The Government has offered up three possible locations at Warwick Farm:
The sites were identified by leisure management consultants Knight Kavanagh & Page (KKP), which have previously worked on sports facilities projects for Government, including the future of Fort Regent.
If the Bowling Club decides that one of the zones is “totally suitable”, they will leave their current premises at the end of the 2022 bowling season in September.
Should Warwick Farm fail to work as an option, It is proposed that the Government acquire the land from the Parish of St. Helier for £700,000 and then provide a “consideration” of £1m to the club to help it rebuild elsewhere.
The Government has eyed up People’s Park as the location for a new attenuation tank.
An attenuation tank is a tank acting as a buffer to store excess rainwater and remove the risk of flooding in an area in a controlled way.
Pictured: The Government wants to rent People's Park for £100/year for the next century-and-a-half as part of the Overdale deal.
Its proposing to build it underneath People’s Park, and promises to restore the park to its current condition when the work is finished.
To do that, it is asking to rent People’s Park at a rate of £100 per year for the next 150 years.
The deal would see the Parish allowed to use any water collected in the tank, but the Government would be solely responsible for its maintenance, repair and possible future replacement.
In accepting the deal, the Parish of St. Helier will also be accepting the loss of around 100 car parking spaces and the associated revenue they generate.
Overall, 157 parking spaces and 32 motorbike and cycle spaces - which together bring in £170,000 each year for the Parish - sit on the land that Government wishes to buy.
Pictured: The number of public parking spaces will be significantly slashed if the deal is accepted.
The Government has pledged to replace 52 of those car parking spaces - that includes only eight which are specifically for the public.
The use of Elizabeth Lane has been described as a "temporary solution". Once construction of the new hospital is complete and open to the public, these spaces will be relocated to Patriotic Street Car Park, the current main hospital car park.
Meanwhile, there will be 10 motorbike spaces and 16 bicycle spaces at locations yet to be agreed between the Parish and the Infrastructure, Housing and Environment Department.
It is proposed that Peirson Road, Kensington Street and Westmount Road (sections or the whole road, as necessary) be transferred to Government ownership.
It is anticipated that only the junction area of Kensington Street maybe affected, with most of the road potentially remaining in Parish ownership – something that will be clarified in the final contract.
The ownership transfer – which would not involve any payment – will include responsibility for development, maintenance and upkeep.
In its proposed deal with the Parish, the Government has confirmed that, where a tree must be removed, it will be transplanted if possible or replaced.
The maturity of any replacement will depend on "the maximum transplantable age achievable within reasonable cost allowances and within the project timeframe" - in other words, where a like-for-like mature tree replacement would be too expensive or difficult, a sapling may have to do.
Pictured: The draft contract with Government includes a diagram indicating which trees around People's Park and Westmount Road will be retained.
The Our Hospital planning application currently indicates a net gain of 700 trees of different types in order to encourage biodiversity.
Government officials have also pledged to undertake a survey of memorial trees and benches in the Parish, and only replace or relocate any upon receiving Parish agreement.
The Government has agreed to pick up all the Parish's legal costs in relation to the deal.
The Parish says that the cash generated from the land sales would be earmarked and placed in its reserves until a Parish Assembly decides what would be best to do with it.
The £6.5m sum is more than the second most valuable property in the Parish's property portfolio - the Parish Depot on La Grande Route de St. Jean (£5.15m) - and twice the value of the Town Hall and its associated buildings (£3.5m).
The deal comes as a package. If parishioners give it the overall thumbs down at next week's Parish Assembly meeting, it will fall apart.
Instead, the Government will look to secure the land it wants via the process of compulsory purchase - in other words, Ministers will use their legal powers to force a land sale, even if it is against parishioners' will.
This may also mean that the Jersey Bowling Club is left without a new HQ, and will have to find a new location by itself, and at its own expense.
While the Procureurs state that they won't recommend parishioners vote either way, they said that they think the deal is likely better value than what may be achieved via compulsory purchase.
Pictured: Procureurs aren't telling parishioners which way to vote next week.
That process, which will only be initiated if planning permission is granted, will see a board decide what level of 'compensation' for the land and hassle is deemed appropriate.
If parishioners do agree, however, the Parish and Government will sign finalised Heads of Terms (below) in January 2022.
Crucially, the deal will only see land transferred to Government if planning permission for the new hospital and its associated highway is approved.
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.