Plans for VCP and Mont à L'Abbé funding boost

Tuesday 13 October 2020

Victoria College Prep will get a new home in the next four years under Government spending plans released yesterday.

Plans to replace the Pleasant Street school have been on the cards since 2012, when the condition of the building was rated below average.

Now, Ministers have set aside £17m to replace it, although where it will be built has yet to be decided.

Other education and child-related investment includes a £7.35m extension and redevelopment of Mont à l’Abbé school, a £7m change to Greenfields at Five Oaks to turn it into a secure home rather than a unit which children were sent to by the courts. The Jersey Instrumental Service is also destined to get a £4.6m new home.

£4.7m will be spent on at Le Rocquier on improving school and community facilities, £3m will go to replacing 3G pitches around the Island’s schools and £2m will be spent on extending La Moye Primary School and adding two extra classrooms.

Pictured: La Moye School will be extended in the next four years.

In total, the Government will spend £371m over the four years of the plan, most of the money coming from the Treasury’s Consolidated Fund.

However, there are extra capital projects which will need extra funding. These include Fort Regent – which will need £26m, £50m for new and improved sports facilities island-wide, and £30m for a Further Education College.

A number of major capital projects, defined as costing more than £5m, were earmarked and received funding in last year’s 2020-23 plan so these are rolled over into this plan.

The major projects are:

• Finishing the Sewage Treatment Works (£8m)
• Microsoft Foundation (£7m)
• Vehicle Testing Centre (£6.4m)
• A new Victoria College Prep (£17m)
• Extension and redesign of Mont à l’Abbé (£7.3m)
• Specialist Accommodation for those with learning difficulties at Aviemore (£9.3m)
• The new hospital (second phase) (£20m)
• Fort Regent (early phase) (£4.8m)
• A Digital Care Strategy (£16m)
• Government Office Modernisation (£3.4m) 
• Redevelopment of Greenfields secure unit (£7m)

The total investment in IT over 2021-24 plan will be £71m, with £33.4m of that held within three projects: the Microsoft Foundation, ‘Integrated Tech Solutions’ and cyber-security. There will be another £19m investment in health-related IT, which will be funded from the Health Insurance Fund.

For the first two years of the Government Plan will be funded by borrowing due to the £400m that Ministers expect to spend dealing with the Covid pandemic. Only in 2023, do they hope to return to a budget surplus. 

As Express reported on Monday, the Government plan to borrow £395m over the next two years to pay for its Covid response. It hopes this will be paid for by pooling the 2019 tax paid by the 55,000 taxpayers who will be moving from ‘previous-year basis’ to ‘current-year basis’ at the end of this year, if the States Assembly vote for it next month.