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A St. Helier resident who successfully called a Parish Assembly to halt work on Westmount Road as part of the new hospital project, is urging fellow parishioners to reject an attempt to lift the ban.
In February, Advocate Olaf Blakeley served a rêquete, which obliged the Parish to hold an assembly of electors, to stop all work on the hill winding up from the People’s Park to Overdale.
Those behind the new hospital project say that Westmount Road has to be flattened, straightened and widened to make it safe for hospital users, when it opens, including ambulances, cyclists and pedestrians.
The land that any road would cut through is owned by the Parish of St Helier, including the home of the Jersey Bowling Club, who would be forced to move.
Pictured: Advocate Olaf Blakeley: “Informed consent can never be given by parishioners until Senator Farnham is open and transparent”.
However, some residents, including Advocate Blakeley, say that there is insufficient detail of the design of the road in order for the Parish to approve it.
After his successful rêquete - which stopped any hospital-related work from being carried out on parish land until “the parish has confirmed at a further assembly that it has received the details it requires” - a deal was struck between the Constable and the hospital project team, which allowed some survey work to be carried out.
Now a further Assembly has been called - for next Wednesday - but Advocate Blakeley does not think that enough information has been provided and is calling on parishioners to reject what is proposed, which is to agree to support alterations to Westmount Road.
He said: “Despite having over three months to produce pictures or diagrams of what the proposed road will look like, nothing meaningful has appeared.
“There are no schematics of the road; there are still no diagrams of its design; nor is there any adequate detail on environmental impact; in short, completely contrary to the project’s purported intended actions and to the words of the Our Hospital group, there are no understandable images of what the access route will translate to in reality.
“Despite this, Senator [Lyndon] Farnham and the other politicians with responsibility for the development appear to believe that circulating an amended plan view of the intended route of the road is all that is required.
Pictured: A guide to how the realigned Westmount Road will look, produced by the Our Hospital team.
“It is clear Senator Farnham has failed to learn the lessons of such a short time ago: informed consent can never be given by parishioners until Senator Farnham is open and transparent.”
Parishioners wishing to attend the Assembly in person are asked to email parishassembly@posh.gov.je or call 811880, by 17:00 this Sunday. They can also attend virtually but must register by the same deadline.
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