Duchess of Kent House ‘fit for purpose’
THE Duchess of Kent House is not a suitable alternative to an adjacent green field as a place to build new key worker accommodation, Dave Mahoney has said.
He said there was currently nowhere else to put the staff who had offices at the site. He said the idea – expressed in the requete – that it would be relatively easy to relocate them, was mistaken.
‘It’s fit for purpose and it’s being used at the moment,’ he said.
‘Is it perfect? No. But it does its job.’
He said there was no controversy in the first two points being made by the deputies behind the requete – that key worker housing was urgently needed and a variety of accommodation types were required.
However, he poured scorn on the third and fourth elements of the requete, which called for the prioritisation of brownfield sites and the need for a full debate in the States.
‘Contrary to popular belief, the States doesn’t own acres and acres of brownfield sites,’ he said.
‘And it’s important to remember, the PEH itself was built on agricultural land.’
‘We already have a robust system of planning in place and yet here we go again with some deputies thinking they know better than the professionals in the planning department.’
He reiterated his view that the agricultural land earmarked was insignificant in the context of the island’s stock of such land, when considering the importance to the island of solving the under-supply of key worker housing.
He calculated the seven-vergee field was 0.029% of the total.
‘If you had assets of £100,000 and I asked you to give me £30 to go and solve one of your biggest problems, you’d be happy to part with the money,’ he said.
Deputy Mahoney said he fully expected a requete on the subject, given recent comments from Deputy Peter Roffey. However, he was surprised to see it being led by Deputy Falla.
The requete is scheduled to be debated at the meeting beginning on Wednesday 13 July.
