St Elmo on Edward Place, and 2 and 4 Kensington Place, will be pulled down after four out of six members of the Planning Committee agreed to proposals during a public meeting yesterday.
The decision comes after it emerged yesterday that the majority of the hospital review panel, which was set up by Chief Minister John Le Fondré to assess where the future facility should be built, found that Waterfront and Overdale sites should be revisited.
Senator Le Fondré has previously said that the final approval for the project would be put before the States Assembly for debate. He is now reviewing the panel’s findings and is due to decide whether the debate should include the option of voting on the Waterfront or Overdale plots. Meanwhile, a report by an independent planning inspector about building the new hospital on the current site is due to be published shortly.
Several members of the public addressed the meeting to oppose the plans, including former planning minister Rob Duhamel who claimed that the plans should be deferred as a matter of ‘planning consistency’ until it was known where the future facility would be built.
Advocate David Moon said the application was ‘part and parcel of the plans’ to build a new hospital on the existing site.
‘The question of the siting of the new hospital is to go to the States for a decision and in that context, this application is premature,’ he said.
However, Trevor Bertram from Jersey Electricity told the panel that the new equipment was required as the substation in the nearby Stafford Hotel, which currently provides power to the Hospital as well as to about 150 customers, is 50 years old and ‘getting to the end of its useful life’.
Architect Mike Waddington, who was speaking on behalf of the applicant, added: ‘There is a very real need for the current hospital to have this piece of equipment in the same way that other pieces of equipment are added to the Hospital each year to allow it to carry on.’
Deputy Russell Labey, chairman of the committee, voted to defer the decision for the outcome of the public planning inquiry while Deputy Scott Wickenden voted against granting permission as he said he thought the plans under-used a plot of land in a built up area.
But the rest of the panel members – Constables Philip Le Sueur and Deidre Mezbourian, and Deputies Graham Truscott and Jeremy Maçon – approved the plans.
Deputy Truscott said: ‘I can fully understand where people are coming from. It is a sensitive issue but I’ve got to be advised by the experts. The equipment is past its sell-by date. There
are potential health and safety concerns that could actually endanger lives at the Hospital if we don’t do this.’
Deputy Rowland Huelin abstained from the vote as he sat on the hospital review panel.
