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The cost of £804.5 million is far too much for an hospital for a small island like Jersey.
We cannot afford it with all the other things that need to be done and to have an hospital costing double price too much as it should be, and giving us less medical efficiency, less number of beds etc( and short of staff).
-Without speaking to add the cost of buying so many private houses (some on compulsory which is affecting and stressing owners) the cost of moving The Jersey Bowling club, the cost buying The Waterworks land, the cost of the 2 fields, the cost to enlarge Westmount Road from top to bottom, including part of People Park, Pierson Road etc and the cost to move the Crematorium house, the cost of changing the Quennevais School in a temporary and less effective « second Overdale », and not even talking about the disappeared Samares ward, and I suppose more and more unexpected expenses will have to be added in the future months and years to come before this end of this project.
-If this goes ahead, it is irresponsible and will lead to higher taxes now and a worse financial position for future generations.
-The rainy day fund was not made to fund long planned capital project, but instead for emergencies and unplanned events. The use of this fund for an hospital that has been 10 years in the making is wrong. The rainy day fund should be remain untouched to cope with future uncertainties.
- Any assumption of returns that covers 40 years is unreliable and it is irresponsible for the
government to propose that past performance on the rainy day fund guarantee' future performance.
The world economy is changing very quickly these days( Brexit, COVID etc)and we cannot assume that Jersey finance industry will continue to provide all the tax revenue and positive economic impact as before.
When the States members were voting last year for Overdale as the site for the new hospital, most of them should have been informed of what was involved.
The fact shows that the site of Overdale itself was far too small, too expensive, with an impossible access and another site should have been chosen, at less expensive price.
Irène and Elio Icardi