An islander with a terminal illness, which she attributes to the stress and “intolerable suffering” caused by two electrical substations close to her home, has been offered a
reassessment after it emerged the Environment Department had mishandled her long-running complaint.
Environment Minister Steve Luce has said that if she agreed, he would reinvestigate a case brought by Michelle Le Cornu regarding severe noise and vibrations from two nearby electrical substations, which she said had had a seriously detrimental effect on her health.
He explained that his department “remains willing to reinvestigate the alleged nuisance if agreed to by the complainant”.
Deputy Luce was responding to a series of recommendations from the States of Jersey Complaints Board after it ruled that his department acted wrongly in its handling of a long-running row over noise and vibrations from two Jersey Electricity substations at the bottom of Trinity Hill.
Despite repeated investigations – including visits by six officers, calibrated noise monitoring and liaison with the utility company – Environment Department officials concluded they could find no evidence of a statutory nuisance as defined under the Statutory Nuisances (Jersey) Law 1999.
But the States of Jersey Complaints Board found that they had misinterpreted the law, failed to properly assess expert evidence, and communicated poorly with the complainant. The board also criticised the involvement of an officer who was the subject of a complaint.
While rejecting claims of inadequate investigation, the Environment Minister apologised for communication failings and agreed to improve guidance, adopt a new statutory nuisance questionnaire, and strengthen internal procedures.
Deputy Luce maintained that “there is currently insufficient evidence to suggest a statutory nuisance”, but added that “the offer of reassessment remains open” to Mrs Le Cornu.
He said this would include a third-party independent facilitator to “support discussions and observe the process of re-assessment”.