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I am 70 years of age, I was born in Jersey and have spent the majority of my life in Jersey.
I cannot remember a major project that has been so badly handled. Unfortunately Senator Farnham and his team are trying to bulldoze this scheme through The States by black mailing his "fellow" States Members.
My main areas of concern are the same as the majority of tax payers, I will highlight them, all of which have been expressed many times before but not listened to.
• The site selection was a sham and seriously flawed. The citizens panel was a farce and the five sites that were "finally" chosen was manipulated by 5 people who knew little about Jersey. The result was Overdale chosen as the "preferred" site, a complete none sense for many reasons.
• If St Saviours Hospital or Warwick Farm had been selected the building work could be under way. Both sites are both big enough and more importantly owned by the people of Jersey. Neither site would have required buying adjacent properties at enormous expense and much inconvenience to many people. ( Crematorium, Bowl Club, Le Marquands and many neighbouring properties) Both sites are large level sites easy to develop and neither are on the top of a hill with difficult access. More importantly all the functions carried out at Overdale could have continued until the Hospital was completed at Warwick or St Saviours.
• The crazy idea of moving the functions, which are currently carried out at Overdale to a redundant school building in the west of the Island at a cost of circa £15M +++ is beyond all belief, no doubt many consultants from the UK have done extremely well by presenting arguments in favour of this move. No doubt many of them recommended by Charlie Parker!!!
• When the original cost of £400M was suggested there was a sharp intake of breath by many people. Recently The States voted through a budget of £800M + I wonder what the final figure might be? There are many examples of new hospitals which have and are being built around Europe for far less than £800M
• The whole tender process is shrouded in mystery, it appears that the design and build team were appointed before the design was agreed. How can that happen?
• My wife was a staff nurse at the hospital for many years, I can assure you the morale within the staff is at an all time low!! It is little surprise when they see the way this fiasco is being handled by the growing number of highly paid "managers" when what is needed is doctors, nurses and support staff.
These are just a few of my concerns, I hope and pray you are able to stop the runaway bus ( Farnham et al ) before it is too late. Please can we have a period of prudent well judged spending before we bankrupt our beautiful Island.
Bob de la Haye