New 'determining panel' could have final say on £800m hospital

Tuesday 03 August 2021

The Environment Minister is pushing to change the law so that he doesn’t have to make the final decision on all major planning applications – like the £800m new hospital – alone.

Deputy John Young has put forward proposals that would see a ‘determining panel’ made up of the Environment Minister, an Assistant Environment Minister and the Chair of the Planning Committee created to have the final say on applications of major public interest.

If approved by States Members in September, the plan would give Deputy Young the option to ask Planning Committee Chair Constable Philip Le Sueur, and either Deputy Gregory Guida or Jess Perchard, to assist him in deciding whether or not to approve the £800m new hospital at Overdale.

The Environment Minister has previously been open about the “burden” of making the final call on what will be Jersey’s largest ever capital project.

One of his first major acts as Environment Minister after being elected in 2018 was to turn down the application to rebuild Jersey’s hospital at its current site.

In September 2020, Deputy Young described the decision as “high-pressure” and one which made him “uncomfortable”, though he said he was confident that he had nonetheless “got it right”.

Video: Deputy Young announcing that he had rejected plans to build a new hospital on the current Gloucester Street site in 2019.

It did, however, lead him to the view that the Environment Minister should not always have to act alone. He told States Members last year that he had signed a Ministerial order to get the wheels in motion, and hoped the law would be changed by the end of 2020.

However, it was only last week that the law change was finally drawn up and shared with States Members. It is one of 20 changes to Jersey’s Planning and Building Law Deputy Young will be asking States Members to support in a vote currently scheduled for 14 September.

The vote on whether to create a ‘Determination Panel’ adds yet another key milestone to the already tight schedule surrounding the hospital project.

With funding yet to be agreed, and planning applications for the demolition of Overdale, creation of a temporary hospital at Les Quennevais and the new hospital itself all still yet to be submitted, it’s currently expected that the final decision on the main planning application will clash with the purdah period - the pre-election period during which time Government Ministers are not allowed to make any decisions or announcements that could be politically advantageous to them in the forthcoming election.

Previously grilled on how this hurdle would be overcome, Deputy Chief Minister Senator Lyndon Farnham, who is leading the hospital project, stated the decision could be left in the in-tray of a new Government after June 2022 or taken during purdah by an outgoing Minister or senior civil servant.

Deputy John Young has previously confirmed he won’t be standing for election again.

However, Deputy Gregory Guida and Constable Philip Le Sueur – both of whom could sit on the Determining Panel – have confirmed their intention to run as members of the ‘Jersey Alliance Party’.

Deputy Jess Perchard is yet to announce either way.