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Dear Sir / Madam,
I am writing to strongly object to the proposed demolition of People's Park, Westmount Road and the surrounding areas/homes as proposed to provide access for the trucks to build the new hospital at Overdale.
When Overdale was chosen as the preferred site the plans for this destruction of our heritage had not been made public, and so when the decision was made, we believed it to be the best site. We thought that it protected the People's Park, but in fact, it does not. The States have not debated about this or been given access to this information in order to question it before it was effectively rubber stamped at the end of last year. They have been hoodwinked into voting it through.
The People's Park and surrounding areas are listed, and Westmount Road holds important significant heritage for the people of Jersey. It is imperative that it is not destroyed, as so much of Jersey has been. The Chief Minister posted only the other day on social media about the 240th anniversary of the Battle of Jersey and how important it is, and yet the States are blindly voting to destroy the very hill that the troops walked down!
Furthermore, the Park was promised to be protected after the initial uproar from it being on the list of considered sites, and the Constable of St Helier along with the States promised the people it would not be destroyed. These proposals go against all of that, as the park will become a green roundabout in the middle of a building site and busy road. It won't be a park at all, and all the events it is used for will no longer be able to use it as such. This is a huge travesty for the whole island, not just the residents, such as myself, who use it all year around.
There are other issues with this site that make it the wrong choice: We will lose all the car parking spaces along the park in an already crowded end of town. There will be considerable disruption to traffic into town, along the one-way system and to the crematorium. There will be an adverse effect on businesses in the area, which are already suffering after Covid, and dust and noise pollution for residents of the area, not to mention the loss of people's homes and the unfair way they are being bullied into selling under the CPO's. I have already mentioned the loss to island residents of the park for big events and the history of the road, and this will be felt most by the residents who use the park all year around. We already have a lack of green spaces and this is going to make it worse. It also goes against the islands green spaces policy. There will be an environmental impact due to loss of the trees and the wildlife that live in the area. This is the tip of the iceberg.
It was also recommended that the hospital would be better as a tall long building over a smaller area, than spread out over a large space with lots of departments in different buildings. If you look at the footprint of the suggested site this goes completely against the recommendations, and at a vast monetary cost, in addition to the costs to the island/area.
Are we really suggesting that we spend such a massive amount of money and put the whole island in debt to build the wrong kind of hospital on the wrong site? It seems that given the access issues, there are better sites that would be more suitable. Warwick Farm is accessible from town and has good main roads accommodating it. The same can be said of St Saviours hospital, and even the site around the current hospital. But those sites were dismissed for reasons like access and disturbance, and yet Overdale is less accessible and will cause more disturbance and that is the chosen site? Perhaps it is something to do with the Wealth Before Health policy, apparent by the recent news that all those dismissed sites are to be developed for housing. So really, it was nothing to do with lack of suitability for a hospital and everything to do with profit..... Nonetheless, given all this new information Overdale needs to be reconsidered along with other options.
Please, Scrutiny, listen to the people who are begging for this madness to end. We appreciate that a new hospital is necessary and that everyone is sick of hearing about it and just wants it done. But we also want it on the right site, without this considerable debt attached and without the loss and destruction of our Park, heritage, and people's homes. Please block this development from happening and reconsider other proposals. If Overdale remains the preferred site, surely there must be a way to build the hospital without causing so much devastation to people and the area. Constable Crowcroft put forward a motion to make the hill a one-way road in the event that Overdale remained the chosen option, which was carried. At the least this would mean that the park, road, and homes would not need to be destroyed, but this motion is also being ignored, and instead plans for complete destruction being pushed forward. This is not right! Something must be done to stop this, and we ask you, our elected representatives, to listen and stand up for us.
Thank you. Yours sincerely,
Gayle Blood
Old St John's Road