Simon Crowcroft made the comments while attending a walk held by The Friends of Our New Hospital, a campaign group conducting daily treks up Westmount Road to gather information on the area before the States debate whether it should become the primary access route for the project on 9 February.
In recent weeks concern has been raised over the potential widening of the road and loss of trees, as well as the impact on heritage sites including the plaque to Major Francis Peirson, who led the Island to victory over the French in the Battle of Jersey in 1781.
Mr Crowcroft said what the group was doing was ‘very productive’ and was helping to raise awareness about the challenges involved in using the road as the access route, but added that it came ‘too late’ for the States to reconsider Overdale as the location.
‘The thing that is disappointing for me – and it’s not the fault of those organising the walk as they have been campaigning for a long time for other, less-problematic sites to be considered – is that the public concern, as often happens in Jersey, comes rather later than the States decision,’ he said.
‘If this concern had been raised before Overdale was approved, then there might have been more push back.
‘There was quite a debate about the amendment, but there was no real consideration about whether Overdale was the best site. I think if these walks had been going on then people might have realised there could be an environmental and a heritage cost.’
Overdale was approved by the States as the preferred location for the new hospital in November, following a debate which lasted just a couple of hours.
‘This kind of awareness-raising wasn’t happening before that critical decision was made on [proposition] P.123 because it is now too late to get the States to change their mind about the location,’ said the Constable. ‘The debate that is coming up on 9 February is about the access, it’s not about the location. I suppose if there were really good arguments about dealing with the access like this then the States might go away and reconsider the location.’
On Thursday, Senator Lyndon Farnham – who is leading the political oversight group for the project – faced scrutiny from the Future Hospital Review Panel, chaired by Senator Kristina Moore.
When asked what he had taken away from the Scrutiny hearing, Mr Crowcroft said: ‘The key thing we learnt was that it is going to be a single planning application. That’s really important because when it comes to planning – it’s bound to go to appeal – there will be a planning inspector who will come in and say “are the sacrifices in terms of heritage and environment in particular, and the increased traffic generation, do they make the project worth it?” so I think there is still that opportunity through the planning process.’
