Leadbeater strongly defends green field build for PEH staff
A MEMBER of the Health & Social Care Committee has made a strong defence of the proposals to build staff accommodation on a green field within the grounds of the Princess Elizabeth Hospital.
In a lengthy letter, Deputy Marc Leadbeater decried the case against the planning application submitted as ‘thin arguments tainted with spin and exaggeration’.
Deputy Leadbeater said that a full and proper process was carried out by HSC and Policy & Resources to determine the best site available to house key worker health staff, and has denied arguments that the field, Le Bordage Seath, is both prime agricultural land and an important area for biodiversity.
He also said that the case that redeveloping the Duchess of Kent site on the hospital border would be more cost-effective was ‘complete nonsense’.
Deputy Leadbeater also said that fears that the development of the field would ‘set a precedent’ for the further development of other green sites ‘holds no weight at all’.
‘I could go on and on and explain about the pressures HSC face 24-7 in delivering the healthcare we need and under immense pressure, often due to the lack of available key staff due to the lack of available key worker housing,’ he said.
‘I could go on to explain that the type of accommodation being proposed, on-site, is exactly what staff are telling us they need.’
The deputy copied his letter to all media as he said he had changed people’s minds in conversations about the development when they learn the full facts.
‘I’ve had many a conversation regarding this development and more often than not, people against it change their minds once they have heard all of the relevant information and I’ve had the opportunity to dispel a lot of the myths they have read on social media.’
Deputy Yvonne Burford, an opponent of the proposals, writes on page 12 of today’s Guernsey Press to encourage more people to make a representation on the planning application currently being progressed. The opportunity to make a comment is open for another week.
She decried the ‘nonsensical' criteria used in site analysis to remove sites such as the Duchess of Kent and Le Vauquiedor House from consideration.
‘The matter on which this application is likely to ultimately hinge is the comprehensive site selection assessment,’ she said.
‘It is to be hoped that when one is produced it demonstrates a much more can-do attitude about the potential of using two or three smaller sites instead. It needs to significantly widen the net on what constitutes a reasonable travel distance, and to give serious consideration to renting office space to free up an obvious brownfield site more quickly, which may well facilitate a cheaper and much more publicly-acceptable solution than what P&R are proposing.’
Deputy Burford’s letter, page 12
n Deputy Leadbeater’s letter will be published in full later this week
