Platon without a builder after RG Falla collapse
LE PLATON Residential Home has had to look for a new builder after the collapse of RG Falla left its nearly-completed new wing in stasis.
Work on the major extension, valued at more than £6m., began at the not-for-profit home at Clifton in St Peter Port in November 2019.
It was close to being finished when the building firm collapsed and workers were taken off the job.
RG Falla and its assets were bought out and the business is now trading as RG Falla Construction. It is continuing to work on some former RG Falla projects.
The company’s website, in announcing the change of ownership and creation of RG Falla Construction earlier this year, included in that statement ‘shortly we will be completing the new medical centre at L’Aumone and the Le Platon Care Home in St Peter Port, both important projects for the island’.
However, RG Falla Construction managing director Brent Green has confirmed that the company was ‘unable to agree terms with the client’, was no longer on the site and did not expect to have any further involvement.
He estimated the work had been one month from completion.
Paul Robilliard, secretary to the board of Le Platon, confirmed the failure of both parties to negotiate a price. He estimated that the project was just a week from completion.
‘When the company pulled out, they let us know when they were removing their equipment and we had hired security fencing in place within an hour of their removing theirs,’ he said.
Le Platon recently lost its chairman, Jurat Mike Tanguy, who died in April.
The board has decided to appoint an acting chairman who will see the new complex through to completion.
The new build will accommodate a new chapel, a new dining room, a kitchen, a day room, a hair salon and training facilities.
‘It will also enable us to accommodate 16 beds for elderly and vulnerable people, which could take some pressure off the Princess Elizabeth Hospital,’ Mr Robilliard said.
The home derives income from residents’ fees but is also a registered charity.
Mr Robilliard confirmed that none of the directors received any remuneration and no dividends were paid to investors.
Le Platon was set up more than 100 years ago by Edith Renouf as a refuge for the incurably sick and was founded on the basis of a Christian ethos. It has had a chapel ever since but now welcomes residents of all faiths and none.
