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It’s curious that there is unity on the island’s need for a new hospital, but such deep division on how to actually get one built.
Today, States Members will decide if Senator Lyndon Farnham’s plans for moving Westmount Road will meet their end on Gallows Hill; or, instead, if he will gather his political troops there, before marching to victory in a virtual Royal Square. Better not remind him what happened to Major Peirson.
But first, let’s take a step back.
The island’s politicians are not deciding whether the new hospital should be built at Overdale. That’s been decided. Ostensibly, today is all about making major changes to Westmount Road (moving it), to help people actually get there easily.
Pictured: Red ribbons tied by protesters on the trees which they believe will go, as this stretch of land becomes part of the new access works.
Watch out for politicians using a pernicious variant on the Johnsonian ‘just get it done’ argument. Thousands of businesses are now discovering what those words actually meant in the content of Brexit.
Yet, the “do you want a new hospital or not?!” line will certainly rear its mottled, bulging-eyed face again today, orchestrating the thoughtless chorus of those who parrot, “just get it done.”
But at what cost? At the cost of people’s homes, the environment around the People’s Park, the setting of an historic part of St. Helier, plenty of parking spaces, a Bowls Club and… a total price tag north of £800m?
We are told that every day of delay will cost the island dearly, which does raise some interesting questions about the terms of the contract signed by Ministers with the hospital’s delivery partner.
What the shock-and-awe tactics of the ‘just get it done’ brigade miss is the reason I used the word “ostensibly” above.
Pictured: It's accepted that Overdale is not a perfect site due to the obvious access problems - but it's seen as being 'less worse' than the People's Park.
The recent record of this Council of Ministers is destabilising public support. That’s a key reason why the ‘Battle of Westmount’ has been enjoined in recent days. People are losing faith. It’s not so much about trees, as about trust.
Just this weekend, the politician leading the hospital project, Senator Farnham, complained about "misinformation", and then said, quite clearly and on-the-record, that his intention was “not to lose a single tree” in the £15m work on the new Westmount highway.
What he presumably meant (since his own project plan clearly sets out the necessary loss of many trees) is that anything ‘lost’ would be replaced elsewhere. But that’s not what he said.
While on the face of it, this bitter row is about trees, history, homes, parking and a bowling club, its roots really go much deeper than that.
Pictured: Senator Farnham has complained about misinformation and that, out of the 71 access options considered by the hospital project group, the one with the minimum environmental impact had been chosen.
It is really about the mindset with which this project is being managed. About the information which has (not) been provided to the people most directly affected. About whether their views have truly been listened to, or just tossed into the incinerator marked ‘just get it done.’
That attitude misses the fact that in the last year, the world has changed, and both businesses and individuals are rethinking their plans in the light of covid; recognising that it is only the politicians who seem to think the world of February 2020 will return any time soon. It won’t, if ever.
Against the backdrop of that considerable uncertainty, the Charge of the Debt Brigade, who are likely to lead plans to fund the new hospital, look like they are taking the island straight into the mouth of the guns.
Should we not be asking how the project can be delivered more simply? What is essential? What will fit within an acceptable budget?
We have a site. Now let’s have a project which the island can easily afford – and that mindset change begins today.
Is there a simpler way to provide suitable access, which Senator Farnham has assured us is the true reason for moving Westmount Road - NOT to provide space for construction traffic?
It is a single (important) aspect of a much bigger project. But, working together with Scrutiny, focusing on simpler alternatives, working collaboratively with those directly affected - rather than forcing bulldozers through the social, historical and environmental context - would speak to a mindset change which seems sorely needed.
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