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STATES RESOURCE PLAN 2000 (P.143/2000): AMENDMENT _______________
Lodged au Greffe on 12th September 2000 by the Deputy of St. John
______________________________
STATES OF JERSEY
STATES GREFFE
180 2 0 0 0 P . 1 5 6
Price code: C
RESOURCE PLAN 2000 (P.143/2000): AMENDMENT ____________
In paragraph (c) of the proposition, after the words as set out in Table 4.4 insert the words -
w ith th e exception that in the PSD Sewers Programme the cumulative costs without risk be increased from
£6,310,000 to £7,410,000 by reducing from £4,000,000 to £2,900,000 the Central IT Vote for 2001 as shown in Table 4.3.
DEPUTY OF ST. JOHN
Report
In the 1998 budget amendment by Deputy P.J. Rondel, the States agreed to additional capital expenditure of £1.35 million on the Public Services budget for mains drains extension.
By reducing the Public Services budget by £1.1 million over three years, the Policy and Resources Committee are in effect negating a States decision.
Further to this some 101 households will once again be pushed back on the sewer extension programme, which in turn will cause a knock-on effect in future years.
If Jersey in 2000 cannot keep in place a programme to improve its infrastructure when the Island has the means to do so, I am concerned for our children if this Island should ever fall on hard times.
As members will see from the letter dated 13th July to the Chief Executive Officer of Policy and Resources further on in this proposition, the effects that the cuts will have on the sewer programme are outlined, some 101 properties having to be re- scheduled and the deferment of major upgrading works on pumping stations.
In an Article in the Jersey Evening Post by the former Engineering Services Manager of Public Services he states “that the department is hampered by staff cuts, budget cuts and service reviews, something is going to fall apart, it hasn’t happened yet but it will do”.
It is time that the States ring-fenced funding of some £80 to £100 million pounds over the next 15 to 20 years to complete the sewerage programme to the majority of the remaining 16 to 17 per cent of households yet to be connected.
There are many times in a year when I receive calls on the issue of mains services and comments that Jersey is no better than a third-world country. To fund the £1.1 million, the money should come from the IS/IT vote.
Over recent years some £10 million has been put into this vote, much of this has been wasted, why put extra funding into IS/IT?
Over the last nine months I have forwarded several independent reports on the content of the States of Jersey Web Sites to the Policy and Resources and Finance and Economics Committees. All these reports make dismal reading and some of the letters sent are reproduced in this report.
You will see from correspondence reproduced on 14th, 15th, 18th, 21st, 30th June and 12th July. The reply from the President of the Finance and Economics Committee, Senator Frank Walker , dated 30th June reads as follows - further to your letter of 21st June, I thought you would be very pleased to learn that it has now been agreed to take on a professional manager of the States Website, as everyone agrees its contents and management leave an enormous amount to be desired.
That in itself is an admission that the IS/IT section of the States has lost its way and a reduction of funding for IS/IT must be considered until this department can prove that they can achieve a consistent standard of work year on year, which should be monitored by an outside body.
The manpower implications would be the same as originally envisaged in the Public Services report when it put forward its original sewers capital programme for 2001-2003.
APPENDIX
BB/lmv/52/75 P.O. Box 412, States Offices,
South Hill, St. Helier , Jersey 13th July 2000 JTEe4le 8pUhoYn,e C 0h 1a 5n 3n4e l6 I0s1la6n9d0s
South Hill Fax 01534 768950 Mr. John Mills, Bellozanne Fax 01534 733578
La Collette Fax 01534 727041 Chief Executive Officer
Policy & Resources Department
Cyril Le Marquand House
PO Box 140
The Parade
St. Helier
JE4 8QT
Dear
SEWERS CAPITAL PROGRAMME 2001-2003
Further to my letter dated the 11th July 2000, I can now provide further information regarding the effect on the 2001-2003 Sewers Programme of reducing the rate of inflation to 2.5%.
The rate of inflation used in the original forecasts was 5% per annum. All costs have been related to base figures at December 1998.
1. T he previously approved programme was as follows:-
2001 2002 2003 Sewer Reconstruction £1,260,000 £1,785,000 £1,078,582 Foul Sewer Extensions £3,675,000 £3,150,000 £3,852,081 Totals £4,935,000 £4,935,000 £4,930,663
T h e reason for the uneven figures for 2003 is that the inflated (at 5%) total figure for 2003 at calculated 2003 prices
which was reduced by Policy & Resources from £7,452,900 to £6,400,000, gives the figure of £4,930,663 worked back to December 1998.
1. T he effect on the above programme, of reducing the rate of inflation to 2.5% is to produce a reduction in funding (at December 1998 prices) as follows:-
Sewer Reconstruction Foul Sewer Extensions
£ £
2001 73,134 213,376
2002 132,891 234,514
2003 97,581 348,504 303,606 796,394
Overall Total £1,100,000 (as indicated in Debbie King’s letter).
- I f this reduction was accepted by the Public Services Committee, the Sewer Reconstruction Programme would be affected as follows:-
( a ) 2001 - There are no new reconstruction schemes with a value as low as £73,134, and therefore the Sewer
Refurbishment amount for general repairs etc. of £262,500 would have to be reduced by £73,134. This is at a time when we are having to replace considerable lengths of pumping mains, which have been failing.
(b ) 2002 - Deferring the Upgrading of La Collette Pumping Station to 2003 would be necessary.
(c ) 2003 - Further deferring of the Upgrading of La Collette Pumping Station to 2004, as well as the Reconstruction of
the Gloucester Street Brook.
- T he Foul Sewer Extension Programme would be affected as follows:-
(a ) 2001 - The Victoria Village (North) scheme would have to be deferred to 2002. - 15 properties.
(b ) 2002 - The Ville au Bas, Grantez, St. Ouen scheme would have to be deferred to 2003. - 25 properties.
(c ) 2003 - The Mont Mado Phase 2, St. John - 31 properties, and Tas de Geon (West), Trinity - 30 properties, schemes
would have to be deferred to 2004.
I have considered these issues, and I feel that we cannot agree to these reductions in the Sewer Programme. This would have to be taken to the Public Services Committee for its view, and the Committee has consistently expressed concern over previous reductions in the Sewer Programme, let alone further reductions. I am sure the Committee would wish to have the opportunity of discussing the proposed reduction with the Policy & Resources Committee.
I would be grateful if you would let me know when it would be possible for my President and the members of the Public Services Committee to attend the Policy & Resources Committee.
Yours sincerely
CLIVE SWINNERTON
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
c.c. T h e President
R o g e r C ulverwell D a v e R oberts
B o y d B ennie
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From the office of: The Deputy of St. John |
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FAX MESSAGE
TO: SENATOR P HORSFALL, PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF THE POLICY & RESOURCES COMMITTEE FAX NO: 856636
FROM: DEPUTY PHIL RONDEL FAX NO: 861302
DATE: 14th JUNE 2000
Dear Members of the Policy & Resources Committee
At the end of 1999 I wrote to your President regarding the poor quality of the States Web site, this was followed by a second letter in the early part of this year, now some 7 months have passed and it appears that little has changed.
Given that the States have spent and are still spending millions of pounds of public money on IT is it not time that this Island got value for money and employed competent people to advise our IT section.
As you are aware Mr. Richard Huelin a Jerseyman living in Wales specialises in IT, you will see from his latest brief report to me that all is far from well.
Before taking this to the floor of the House at question time could your Committee look in depth at putting in place a co- ordinated approach of all States web sites, and if necessary speak to Mr. Huelin or some other Web designer for some assistance.
As a leading finance centre we are falling behind in the most basic of areas. I am copying this letter to the Finance & Economics Committee as hopefully it might encourage the Policy & Resources Committee to act a little faster than the seven months it has taken to date.
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From the office of: The Deputy of St. John |
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(2)
You will recall that I have forwarded to you two large reports on errors on the States of Jersey Web sites. I am reluctant to get a third commissioned as the previous two were done at no cost, but it would be unfair to ask for another report without some sort of remuneration.
Yours Sincerely,
Phil Rondel
c.c. Finance & Economics Committee
Dear Phil,
I promised that I would take another look at the States web site. I am sorry to report that while a few things have become slightly better, generally the whole site is a prime example of incompetent web design.
It appears to have been designed by extremely lazy people used to an intranet, where no consideration has to given to normal Internet users. It is apparent that there has been little if any communication between the various departments responsible.
Apart from basically sloppy basic design, the real Achilles heel is the very poor download times for most pages, even with good telecommunications and fast modems the pages are compromised by their very poor down load time. As an international finance centre all pages should be fast to load and accessible Worldwide. Many third World countries have poor telecommunications, and slow modems are quite common. It seems to be gross stupidity to exclude such people from gaining information about the island, simply because the site designers are too lazy or incompetent to optimise their work.
It really makes me sad to see that despite you having advised those responsible at least seven months ago of these problems that scant or no action has been taken. As you might be aware I spend a great deal of my time assisting new web designers in basic web design. Until now I have felt it unfair to use the States web site as an example of all that is worst about web design. Now that it is fully apparent that the site is simply a ego trip for the design team with no consideration to the end user I will not hesitate to use it as an example of how to alienate users.
Best Regards, Richard.
http://www.jersey.gov.uk/
Unique images: 23 Total images: 23 Total bytes: 113889 Image loading will take about: 72.5 seconds @ 14.4
36.25 seconds @ 28.8
18.66 seconds @ 56K
Poor design and far to slow to download for the initial page of any site.
http://www.jersey.gov.uk/esu/default.htm
Unique images: 15 Total images: 29 Total bytes: 209253
Image loading will take about: 129.09 seconds @ 14.4
64.54 seconds @ 28.8
33.22 seconds @ 56K
Much to slow in download time.
http://www.jersey-harbours.com/
Unique images: 1 Total images: 1 Total bytes: 163619
Image loading will take about: 99.31 seconds @ 14.4
49.65 seconds @ 28.8
25.56 seconds @ 56K
The image on this page has not been optimised for the web, in less than two minutes I got the file size down to 31,170 bytes. I still looks exactly the same but would download in 12 seconds for a 28K modem user.
http://www.jersey.gov.uk/immigration/index.htm
Unique images: 3 Total images: 3 Total bytes: 51345
Image loading will take about: 31.57 seconds @ 14.4
15.78 seconds @ 28.8
8.12 seconds @ 56K
MEMORANDUM
TO: D e p u ty P. Rondel
M e m b e rs o f P olicy & Resources Committee
Se n a to r F. W a lker, President of Finance & Economic Committee M e m b e rs o f F inance & Economic Committee
FROM: Se n ato r P. Horsfall OUR REF: PFH /jw
DATE: 1 5 t h J une 2000
Dear Phil,
Thank you for your letter of 14th June regarding the State’s web site.
I have asked Mr. Peter Griffiths for an up-date and I enclose his reply for your information. From it you will see that action was taken following your earlier letter and is continuing.
Yours sincerely,
SENATOR P F HORSFALL
PRESIDENT, POLICY & RESOURCES COMMITTEE
MEMORANDUM
TO: Se n ato r P. Horsfall, President Policy and Resources Committee FROM: Pe te r Griffiths, IS/IT Strategy Adviser, Policy & Resources Department REF: p g /m e m o/39
DATE: 1 4 t h J une, 2000
Dear Senator,
Re: States of Jersey Web Site
I refer to the fax message to yourself and members of Policy & Resources Committee from Deputy Phil Rondel regarding the States of Jersey Internet web site.
Let me update you on policy and developments surrounding the “official” web site:
- Computer Services Department have up until now developed and maintained the central site whilst departments individually developed and maintained their own. This work was done in an ad hoc fashion and was not aligned to a specific strategy of delivering States services in a more effective and efficient way.
- A n Internet/Intranet Project Board was in existence but was rather ineffectual.
- I n May 1999 I rewrote the terms of reference for the project board in an effort to control and monitor facilities over States of Jersey web sites, as well as a brief to rationalise and consolidate the various Internet projects that were active. To my knowledge the board did not meet again, due in some part to the long term illness of its chairman.
Subsequent events have seem improvements on all fronts:
- A s part of the overall IT strategic framework which I launched last year, an e-government project was setup to deliver Government services over the Internet as part of an overall programme of improving efficiency of Government. Work has begun which will result in coordinated web development for the States.
- I n the absence of effective management in Computer Services Department I took it upon myself last month to take responsibility for executive decisions for that department. One immediate result being the formation of an Internet/Intranet project team, dedicated to the task.
- A gain, in the absence of an effective Internet/Intranet Project Board I took the chair of a new board only this week where, immediately, new policies and guidelines were formulated designed to govern States use of the Internet. Standards will be issued and adherence monitored.
- A t the recent meeting members were treated to a presentation of a new States of Jersey web site, which, subject to some minor alterations, I intend to approve for production within a week. This site will replace the one referred to in Mr. Huelin’s report six months ago.
With regard to Mr. Huelin’s report I recall that it contained numerous recommendations that were not appropriate, but many were taken on board. In fact, of the points in my letter to you on 7th January 2000, items 1, 3, 4, 6 and 7 have been incorporated into the new web site. If you recall I also countered Mr. Huelin’s criticism with the recognition the States of
Jersey web site had received by official IT bodies.
Much work has been done over the last couple of months, resulting in a active project board and development team and a new web site for the States. Remember, this has all been achieved without key people being replaced in Computer Services Department.
Please do not hesitate to contact me should further clarification be required. Kind regards,
Peter Griffiths
IS/IT Strategy Adviser
Deputy P J Rondel,
La Maison Hors D’Etcherrè, La Rue de la Mare Ballam, Saint Jean,
Jersey C.I.
JE3 4EJ
Sunday, 18 June 2000 Dear Phil,
Please find enclosed a basic but comprehensive report on the States of Jersey Web Site. The report on the basic functionality of the site consists of details of all the first pages viewed when using the links from this page: http://www.jersey.gov.uk/govt.htm these are the entry pages to most sections appertaining to government. The report speaks for itself.
Also enclosed are reports on each particular sections of the States site, which you indicated an interest in, a glossary of terms used within the reports and a search engine performance test. You mentioned that one of your colleagues has assumed responsibility for designing a new section for the States of Jersey site. While conducting the search engine tests I came across some of his work and checked it, see NetMechanic Results.
In order to demonstrate that bad design is not necessary and as an example of how file sizes can be optimised to give a far faster download time I quickly optimised this page: http://www.jersey.gov.uk/govt.htm The result can be seen by going to this web site: http://www.planefacts.ndirect.co.uk/states/
It will be noticed that apart from a very slight difference in alignment the pages appear to be identical, the difference being that the latter site has no HTML errors and a file size of 37,992 bytes with a download time of 7.37 seconds for a 56K modem user. The respective figures for the original page are 32 HTML errors, 92,860 bytes and a download time of 15.13 seconds. This should be ample proof that good design pays dividends both for the end user and the site owner. Using similar care throughout the States of Jersey web site would significantly improve the viewing experience for all users and also result in freeing up well over 50% of the storage space currently used for hosting the site. For more information see Site Downloand/Site Efficiency Summary.
In conclusion, it appears that none of the States of Jersey sites have been checked for functionality. Confirmation of user friendliness is essential for the success of any web site, the could not care less attitude abundantly apparent throughout the site would be the kiss of death to any commercial web site. The recently well-publicised crash of a well-known web site is a prime example, which proves that a policy of allowing designers to create non-functional sites is doomed to failure in the commercial world. While I appreciate that the States of Jersey are not a commercially driven organisation, best practise would surely be beneficial to both the taxpayer, the image of the States and of prime importance, to the end user.
Yours faithfully, Richard H Huelin.
FROM:
FROM:
D e p u ty P.J. Rondel
L a M a is on Hors d’Etcherre
R u e d e la Mare Ballam tes of Jersey St. J o h n JE3 4EJ
21st June 2000
Senator F Walker A21 Regent House Park Heights
Old St. John’s Rd. St. Helier JE2 3LF
Dear Frank
Please find enclosed the latest report to add to the brief report that I sent you last week. The comments make very interesting reading.
Yours sincerely,
Phil
Senator Frank Walker
Senator Frank Walker President,
Finance and Economics Committee. Cyril Le Marquand House,
St. Helier ,
tes of Jersey Jersey, JE4 8UL.
Deputy P J Rondel
La Maison Hors d’Etcherre Rue de la Mare Ballam
St. John , JE3 4EL 3 0 t h J u n e 2 0 0 0 Dear Phil,
Further to your letter of 21st June, I thought you would be very pleased to learn that it has now been agreed to take on a professional manager of the States website, as everyone agrees its content and management leaves an enormous amount to be desired.
Many thanks for bringing this to my attention. Kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
12/07/00 19:45:33 Dear Phil,
Here is a very brief independent view of the States Web Site. Having only had a very quick look at the new site I am of the opinion that it was designed as a project by a primary school class.
Regards, Richard.
Dear Richard,
With reference to the States of Jersey Official Website (later version) you asked me to cast a look at...
The first thing I noticed was the scrolling marquee on the opening page. I am surprised this has been introduced, as it is, as you may be aware, Internet Explorer specific, and therefore, it is not going to be seen by an approximate 25% of the site’s visitors.
I see the site has been done in a frames structure. This, although it can be made to work to advantage, when done properly, in this case it is going to work against the site. There has been no “noframes” content added. This means that Search Engines, which nowadays mainly rely on the text content of the main html document, (the part between the body tags) will effectively read only that “your browser does not support frames”, with a subsequent poor listing.
I was somewhat amused to see in the “parish” section, that someone had tried to use a “right click disable” code. I honestly thought this was just used by young kids on their first sites.
In the first section of the left hand menu, all the links open up new browser windows. Now while this may ensure the main website is kept to hand, it is extremely annoying to visitors to have to keep closing extra windows, and can be a cause of over use of resources, leading to freezes and crashes on pcs with limited memory. Personally if I want to return to a site, I prefer to use my back button than have my browser try to organise me.
I have not had time for a full check through the site, but on the sections seen, there is quite a lot of room for improvement. Best Regards,
Anna http://www.webliaise.co.uk