Some deputies have criticised the “confusion and misinformation” that has been circulating online around the planned removal of the last diving platform at La Vallette.

Following the protests that saw hundreds of supporters head to the Ladies’ pool to protest against its removal, Deputy John Gollop brought the platform’s future to the States with a number of questions on the topic.

Pictured: The questions posed from Deputy Gollop to the Presidents of E&I and ESS.

He wanted to know more about the work of the Health and Safety Executive which has banned the use of the board, and intended to remove it until public pressure resulted in a temporary stay while a long term solution can be found.

Deputy Peter Roffey got to reply in his role as President of Employment and Social Security, which is the department that governs the work of the HSE.

“I can confirm that ESS has no power to prepare or change the decision of a statutory official acting under statutory powers,” he said. “However, Deputy Gollop refers to the Health and Safety Executive, which operates under a mixture of statutory and delegated powers.

“This power has long been delegated by successive committees to the Chief Health and Safety Officer. For obvious reasons, it will be extremely unwise to lay politicians with no expertise in the area to directly discharge this themselves.

“My committee could, if it so chose, revoke that delegation of powers. Not only would we regard that as extremely odd, and unwise for the reasons I’ve just referred to, but it also would not invalidate any actions that have been taken under those delegated powers while they existed.”

Deputy Roffey also criticised what he perceived as misinformation around the diving board itself.

“There has been an awful lot of disinformation about this. There has never been an order that the diving board should be removed, and that’s the narrative that has been promoted.

“I think, personally, that the problem in relation to the diving board is insufficient funding being made available for maintenance of what I regard as a national treasure, which is La Valette swimming pools.”

Pictured: Islanders took to the Ladies Pool in order to object to the diving boards removal.

Deputy Roffey also confirmed that the current risk to the diving board relates to an accident, or an incident, at the tail end of 2023. 

“(The HSE) were legally obliged when they were called in to investigate, and look at the situation at the bathing pools, and there was a very long dialogue about the options we could take to resolve a perceived risk before any prohibition notice was issued,” he said.

Deputy Lindsey de Sausmarez was also put on the spot, as Deputy Gollop asked if her committee, Environment and Infrastructure would “confirm they are open minded in finding a viable way forward to satisfy all the stakeholders that manages risk”.

“Yes, it is,” she confirmed.

Deputy de Sausmarez also confirmed that E&I is open minded to finding new ways of funding any necessary work and will explore private finance and voluntary support where offered, if it is needed.

Pictured; (Left to Right) Deputy John Gollop, and President of E&I, Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez.

The E&I President also took a swipe at alleged misinformation online, surrounding the Food and Environment Protection Act, 1985 (FEPA). 

“There has been some confusion and misinformation I believe circulating online,” she said.

“It is not and it has never been the case, that a FEPA license is required for manual operations of that kind of scale that Deputy Gollop alluded to in terms of volunteer activity.

“FEPA licenses are obviously necessary generally, because it’s important that we do have some legislative controls over what is and is not, put on our sea bed. Bearing in mind, obviously that’s where a lot of our critical national infrastructure goes in the form of energy cables, electricity cables and telephones cables, etc, and I know that various members are very fond of things like eel grass and ormering and other things.

“I’m happy to confirm that such volunteer activities that are not large scale, that are based on manual processes, would be exempt from that process.”

Pictured: The diving board that were the center of the protest, and the subsequent debate.

Earlier this week Express reported how Deputy Mark Helyar had critiscised the Health and Safety practices which were used to doom the diving board in the first place, and has since gone on to state that “wire mesh is going to be welded to it (at your expense) to stop it from being used.”

Express has approached the States for comment on that claim.

We are still awaiting a response at the time of publication.