£18m transferred to behind-schedule hospital project

More than £14m earmarked for 14 existing projects has been deferred by a year and redistributed to the proposed new hospital due to be built at Overdale.

A recently released government report stated that £17.8m would be needed to fund ‘early works’ on the Our Hospital project following budgeting delays, with the rest coming from savings and using different funds for other projects.

Treasury Minister Susie Pinel has agreed to defer funding for the 14 other government-approved capital projects until 2022 to plug the gap, including £1.5m of funding for a review into the use of the Rouge Bouillon site, £1.8m for development of La Collette, £1.6m for schools extension improvements and £2m from a major cyber-security project. The government also plans to use £1.1m of funding no longer required for the demolition of Fort Regent pool and refit and replacement of fisheries vessels.

The report claimed that a States debate on a proposed access route led to a three-month delay to the new hospital. The Political Oversight Group and Our Hospital team advised that the delay came with ‘associated uncertainty in developing a master plan for the Overdale site’ meaning designs could not ‘progress as quickly as anticipated’, the report stated. Funding for the project was included up until July 2021 in the Government Plan 2021-24.

Meanwhile, the Criminal Offences Confiscation Fund will be used to fund the £2.2m needed for two court projects, after Attorney General Mark Temple agreed to the request last year, with this budget also transferred to the Our Hospital project. These include work under way on sexual-assault referral centre Dewberry House and modernisation of the Island’s courtrooms.

There is a four-week period following presentation of the transfer requests to the States, after which they will be authorised.

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