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Submission - Anonymous - 13 October 2020

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Written Submission from member of the public re Future Hospital Site 13 October 2020

Apologies for the multiple recipients, however I am unsure as to who is the correct person to contact, as a resident of St Helier No.3, in connection with the proposed location of the new hospital at Overdale.

I am emailing on behalf of the owners of              ) which are located in between the 2 fields on Westmount Road which I understand are to be purchased and built on as part of the new hospital.

Each property at   , and I assume all of the other properties in the strip of land between the  fields,  received  a  letter  dated  10th  September 2020  from  Andy  Scate of  Growth,  Housing  and Environment (copy attached) stating that our houses were being considered in connection with the possible location of the hospital. Whilst possibly a separate issue, my wife and I had our property on the market and had received 2 separate offers to buy. Following some legal advice, we were advised the letter received had to be disclosed to any potential purchasers, which of course we did. Following this, both purchasers stated they were withdrawing their offers until such time as there was certainty as to where the hospital site was to be located. Therefore we have currently lost out on the sale of our property, an issue we will take legal advice on depending on the outcome of this and future decisions.

Following receipt of the letter, we, as the owners of       , individually emailed Phil Dawes of D2 Real Estate confirming our position that we would be willing to sell to the States. We understood that having the States purchase our properties, it would be one less boundary issue to worry about and the houses could be used in the interim to house workers associated with the construction of the hospital. It now transpires, that shortly after the letters were issued, someone within the States has changed the position and stated that our properties are no longer required. However we understand that should us and the properties to the West of us agree to sell, then the States may still consider purchasing these. A fact that we have had to find out separately from the 2 pieces of communication, an example of the clear lack of communication and empathy from the States. Note we have not received the letter confirming the change in position and it was as a result of us contacting D2 that we found this information out.

From speaking with D2 Real Estate, it is evident they are having to deal with a constantly changing situation and are simply passing on the information they receive. The issue we have is there is no consistency to the information and in actual fact it changes within days of the last information received. I hope you can see it is not a situation of our creation though is something where, we as home owners, cannot make informed decisions on, as the information is subject to change and change that appears to be on a whim of either a politician, civil servant or consultant. The intention of this email is to speak to our elected representatives to seek further information, clarification and certainty about what is currently planned. To receive a letter of the nature of the one we did is clearly very upsetting and creates the stress of making a very important decision as to whether we stay and be within a building site for a number of years or reluctantly move house due to the biggest construction project the island will have seen. We clearly made a decision that we would be open to move and acted on the content of the letter, however now have the exceptionally upsetting news that this is no longer an option as someone has effectively changed their mind'. This is something we will be taking legal advice on too.

I am sure you can see how upsetting and unacceptable this is and I hope something you can assist with on our behalf.

Dear Steve

Thank you for your time yesterday. I look forward to hearing from you with regards next steps and any further information.

For the avoidance of doubt and contradictory to the last letter received from D2 Real Estate, of the 8 residences within our strip of land 75% (6 of 8) are willing to sell to the States. The other 2 have not stated they are definitely against selling, though neither have they confirmed they willing to sell. The 75% are made up of all of the houses from    , so would effectively create one large parcel of land which would connect both of the compulsory purchased fields. I appreciate each household and their thoughts on the process are different, however the intention is definitely there. I assume this would then make things a lot simpler for the States.

We will communicate the same to D2RE. We look forward to hearing from you.