Deputy calls for clarity on future of empty site

A scrutiny leader has called for answers about the long-term plans for a disused site at Kensington Place in St Helier.

Buildings on the site were demolished three years ago after the Government of Jersey made a compulsory purchase in order to build a new hospital.

But the land has remained empty since ministers opted to build an inpatient hospital at Overdale instead.

In a written question to the health minister, Deputy Jonathan Renouf asked what the future plans for the Kensington Place site were. In response, Health Minister Deputy Tom Binet said the exact services for the site had not yet been finalised but a "full review" was under way.

Renouf said he wanted clarity "as quickly as possible" about what was going to happen at the site "in terms of health facilities" and that he would like to see some interim use.

He said: "The minister has told us he is rethinking what he wants to do with this site. I think all we can do is hope that that process happens very, very quickly."

Renouf said he was still "no clearer" on what the plans for the site were.

He said: "It's a big area, it's a huge area; and all the focus has been on Overdale, and that's important.

"But we need to turn our attention to what we're going to do with the rest of the health estate. This seems to me to be something which we just don't know much about at the moment."

Binet said he would have plans for the unused site before the election in June.

He said: "The site is prepared, it's ready to go. Once we know exactly what's going to go where, we can then look at what we might do with that site going forward.

"But to make a decision on a meanwhile-use before you know what's happening, I think would be putting the cart before the horse - not very sensible."

Sam, from Cafe Spice, said Kensington Place "used to be amazing" and that it still was - but it would be "nice to have the street lively again".

He said: "We used to have a lot more hotels, clubs at the end of the road.

"Those two hotels used to generate quite a lot of the summer trade but, because this is a side road now, you don't get that much tourists as we used to down here.

"The progress is nice, but they have kind of forgotten about us a little bit with that little hole at the end of the road."

Sam, who has run his cafe for about 21 years, said the space could have been used for parking during the three years as there was "always a shortage" in the area.

He said: "Parking's always been hard around here. You drive in and you drive around for half-an-hour before you find parking, and then the car park's mainly full from about nine in the morning straight away.

"A little bit of parking down the road would be really nice, might bring more people in too."

He added: "As long as they get something done with it, it's good, rather than leaving it all empty constantly; waste of space."

Binet said over the past six months there had been "over 100 meetings" between the New Healthcare Facilities Programme team, more than 380 Health and Care Jersey colleagues and wider stakeholders.

He said: "This is to ensure that that all services have been reviewed and that the demand and capacity modelling is appropriately updated."

Binet said that, although the site was empty, it had been used for the storage of clinical supplies, materials and equipment for refurbishment projects and for "service and operational vehicle parking".

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