La Folie: ‘Island has missed out on decade of income’

The group has submitted ten pages of comments on the Council of Ministers’ proposition to incorporate the Island’s air and sea ports into a single company.

Local fishermen protesting against the axed development.

  • 1996 – the Sea Cadets are granted £600,000 by the States as seed money for a new headquarters.
  • 2000 – although planning permission has been granted for scheme to rehouse the Sea Cadets funding cannot be secured and the project is abandoned.
  • 2013 – rumours of a new harbour-side community development begin to emerge.
  • early 2014 – talks are held with groups and stakeholders based near the Victoria Pier about a major development
  • November 2014 – plans for the Port Galots project are unveiled, but a major campaign against the scheme is launched.
  • December 2014 – the Planning Department reveals that the Port Galots application is the most commented on application in the department’s history. Many of the comments are objections being registered through a petition, which eventually gains around 5,000 signatures.
  • January 2015 – Port Galots plans are withdrawn and politicians confirm that the Les Galots area will not be considered for residential development, but still remains a viable site for the Sea Cadets. At the first States sitting of the year Transport Minister Eddie Noel tells the Chamber that just £107,000 of the States initial £600,000 grant is left, with most of the money having been spent on professional fees for unrealised projects.[/breakout]

In those comments, which have been published before a States debate on incorporation which is due to take place on Tuesday, the panel said that the States had missed an opportunity to make money from the La Folie area at the Harbour, which once housed a popular pub.

The panel’s submissions, which broadly welcomed the case for incorporation, said that they had heard evidence that La Folie ‘was cleared “for imminent development” ten years ago, and could therefore have been redeveloped and generating revenue for nearly a decade’.

‘This is a case of missed opportunity by the States that will hopefully not be repeated by a more commercially-oriented incorporated Ports of Jersey,’ they said.

The Ports of Jersey has previously stated that redeveloping the site forms part of their long-term plans for St Helier’s marina.

A States debate over incorporation has been delayed three times this year.

However, the Economic Affairs Scrutiny Panel said that a further delay may have been beneficial, adding that while it had had time to conduct a full review of the case for incorporation, the group had not been able to produce a full report on the matter.

The panel said that there was a strong case for extra guidelines about limiting the number of directorships on States-owned companies that can be held by one person, and that the organisation needed to produce a detailed business plan for incorporation before moving ahead.

It also questioned why the Guernsey waste project – a deal for Jersey’s incinerator to take rubbish from Guernsey for a fee – had been included in the plans as the scheme was uncertain and relied on decisions outside of the control of the Ports of Jersey and the States.

The confusing 'backwards' clock at La Folie Inn in 1980

And the panel briefly questioned whether the Harbourmaster could encounter conflicts of interest under incorporation, but it was decided that enough legislation was in place to guard against such conflicts.

Ultimately, however, the panel accepted that incorporation was the most appropriate way forward for the Island and is not going to call for a delay in the debate.

The panel concluded: ‘The panel recognises the importance of the flexibility that incorporation will bring to allow the Ports of Jersey to act with more agility and freedom in a commercial environment.

‘However, it is also mindful of the need for this freedom to be balanced effectively with proper scrutiny and regulation, to protect the interests of customers and the public of the Island.’

The Economic Affairs Scrutiny Panel comprises chairman Constable John Le Maistre, Constable Michael Paddock, Deputy David Johnson and Deputy Simon Brée.

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