‘Les Ozouets post-16 campus development could cost a lot less’

Brent Green, managing director of Breton Group, the construction firm whose predecessor company was removed from the project, sparking ongoing delays in starting the build, said millions could be shaved off the project.

The States said that in December 2022 that it could no longer work with preferred tenderer RG Falla on the contract. Four months later the business went bust, with the jobs and most contracts saved by a new leadership team.

It rebranded as Breton Group in the summer.

‘A suitable facility could be delivered for many millions of pounds less than what is being proposed,’ said Mr Green.

‘Breton would be more than happy to engage with the States and help them identify those savings, and it would be preferable to do this utilising local Guernsey resources, reducing the reliance on an off-island supply chain while delivering the project as quickly as possible for Guernsey.’

Mr Green said that his company would have the resources and capabilities to take on the project, and was also looking forward to a busy year in 2024.

‘The name change was definitely the right idea,’ he said. ‘We are about to start two major private housing projects and our “small works” branch has been very successful. We are trying to get in earlier and work with architects to come up with realistic budgets.’

John Bampkin, chairman of the Guernsey Construction Forum, said last year that it was generally believed that locally, only Rihoys would have had the capacity to build the Les Ozouets campus.

‘We know the school is vital to the island and believe that it must be built as economically as possible,’ said Mr Green.

‘Breton’s team have successfully built and delivered numerous large infrastructure projects of this nature, on time and within budget.’

The campus at Les Ozouets is part of the approved secondary and post-16 education model for the island but the construction of new buildings remains in doubt as after months of wrangling the States have still to sign off on the required funding.

Education Sport & Culture has asked for £130m. to fund the transforming education programme but now the Policy & Resources Committee has got involved and is seeking a compromise to allow some work to go ahead.

It is understood that various reshaped projects are being considered.

Deputy Peter Roffey has been a long-term critic of ESC’s plans for Les Ozouets, primarily on grounds of cost.

He has already asked ESC to consider three ways to reduce the redevelopment costs at Les Ozouets.

‘The first is not to build a brand new Sixth Form Centre on the site, at least in phase one,’ he said.

‘The second is also to phase The Guernsey Institute part of the project, for example by dropping proposed extensive sports facilities from the first phase.

‘The third is to carry out a general value engineering exercise on the whole project to remove any over-specification.

‘I would like to see a combination of all three of these approaches.’