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Plans to build a new joint headquarters for the Ambulance and Fire Services at Rouge Bouillon – which were set to be realised back in 2022 – seem to have been quietly replaced with a vision of two separate facilities that is unlikely to be progressed until 2028.
The Director General for Justice and Home Affairs. Kate Briden, said that there had been a “shift in strategy” from previous successive governments which had all backed the idea to create a combined 'Joint Fire and Ambulance Station'.
It had already been agreed that the long-awaited combined HQ would be named after Len Norman, who pledged in 2019, while serving as Home Affairs Minister, that work would start on a new joint headquarters by 2022.
More than £212,000 has been spent on bringing the capital project to life so far.
The former Home Affairs Minister Helen Miles – who now sits on the Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel – said last December that the project was "on hold" due to "competing demands for the well-located total site at Rouge Bouillon" between Education and Emergency Services.
Further feasibility work and ministerial meetings were supposed to take place in the first half of this year.
However, current Home Affairs Minister Mary Le Hegarat, told the Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel on Thursday afternoon that creating a new headquarters is part of a bigger "puzzle" and Gas Place – near Millennium Town Park and also earmarked for educational use – is "part of that puzzle".
"We need to be able to work out which part comes first and decisions need to be made about Gas Place. Once those decisions are made, the rest of the puzzle can follow," she said.
Pictured: "Decisions need to be made about Gas Place," the Home Affairs Minister said.
Deputy Le Hegarat said she met with other ministers in June to discuss the future of the site at Rouge Bouillon, and she was "pretty much aligned" with the Infrastructure Minister and Education Minister on the way forward.
Deputy Le Hegarat said the "current thinking" is that the headquarters would be in a "similar location" to where they are now – as in, these are unlikely to move from their respective locations at Rouge Bouillon.
She added: "The long term capital plan, as set out in the Budget [for 2025], highlights that the investment for Rouge Bouillon will be in 2028, and that's considering realistic estimates on the delivery of capacity within government and the construction sector to commence this program of work."
She said that for the development to happen sooner than 2028 was "probably not going to be an option".
In the meantime, she added, officers were working with Jersey Property Holdings to ensure that the current Ambulance and Fire Service headquarters "are appropriately maintained".
Express reported in March that more than £220,000 has been spent on maintaining the Ambulance headquarters at Rouge Bouillon over the past five years, with the figure increasing year-on-year from just £6,558 in 2019 to £89,091 in 2023.
Pictured: Express reported in March that more than £220,000 has been spent on maintaining the Ambulance headquarters.
"Technically that is dead money," Deputy Le Hegarat said, adding: "That's why this needs to be expedited and done as quickly as possible.
"The length of time taken to deliver new buildings that are required has a serious impact on the money that we are wasting."
Deputy Miles wanted clarification on whether discussions on a combined HQ had ended, to which Deputy Le Hegarat replied: "It is unlikely that they will be combined, unless things change."
Meanwhile, Director General for Justice and Home Affairs Kate Briden, said there was a need to invest in the Fire and Rescue headquarters in equal part to the Ambulance headquarters to maintain them.
Pictured: Home Affairs Minister Mary Le Hegarat was appointed in February.
She added that the move toward separate facilities rather than a combined facility was a "shift in strategy" and more work would be undertaken in the next few months to paint a clearer picture of the new vision before feeding back to ministers and the Scrutiny Panel.
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