P&R proposes £88m. for Les Ozouets campus build
Construction of the Guernsey Institute at Les Ozouets should start in August – if deputies back a new £88m. funding plan at this week’s States meeting.
But the Sixth Form Centre faces years at La Mare de Carteret – until at least 2029, it is understood – after being stripped out of phase one of the revised scheme for Les Ozouets to save more than £16m.
Indoor and outdoor sports facilities have also been omitted from the latest proposal to reduce costs by a further £8.5m.
The new funding plan was unveiled this morning by P&R president Lyndon Trott and vice-president Heidi Soulsby.
They will present it as an amendment to the Government Work Plan debate at tomorrow’s States meeting. The amendment has the backing of Education, Sport & Culture president Andrea Dudley-Owen.
‘We can’t continue with the uncertainty around post-16 education. From the outset of our short time on P&R, we felt finding a compromise was an urgent priority,’ said Deputy Trott.
‘That means giving our community – students, parents and teachers – confidence in the future for post-16 education and a clear plan for how the new facilities they have been promised will be delivered.’
Last year the States rejected numerous proposals to fund ESC’s reorganisation of secondary and further education, in particular a new post-16 campus at Les Ozouets, which at that time had a price tag of between £110m. and £130m.
P&R’s new plan includes £76m. to construct the Guernsey Institute, which would bring together the College of Further Education, the Institute of Health and Social Care Studies, and the GTA University Centre in purpose-built facilities on the site of the former St Peter Port School.
About £9m. would be spent refurbishing the former Grammar School buildings at Les Varendes, and repurposing them to operate as an 11-16 school.
Digital improvements at the Guernsey Institute would cost about £2m. About £300,000 would be spent on interim changes to sports facilities at Beau Sejour required by post-16 students. And the States would have the option of spending an additional £1m. to put in foundations for a future sixth form centre at Les Ozouets.
P&R has said it would fund the scaled-down project by borrowing up to £55m., using up to £33m. from reserves and selling the College of FE’s Coutanchez site for housing.
Deputy Dudley-Owen welcomed P&R’s ‘engagement’ and ‘strategic view’, pledged her support for P&R’s amendment and ruled out presenting a counter amendment to include immediate funding for a Sixth Form Centre at Les Ozouets as well.
‘The most recent debate on funding was a huge frustration, leaving significant parts of our education provision in limbo,’ she said.
‘Although I am disappointed that a way to deliver the entire site has not been found at this time, I am grateful to P&R for their option to lay the foundations for the sixth form block. This sends a clear message of intent and support to staff in both the secondary and post-16 phases of education.
‘This is an opportunity that the island cannot afford to miss and we are ready to begin constructing the purpose-built facility that our staff, students, adult learners and employers have been promised for so long and which is essential to delivering the skilled workforce our community and economy needs.’
