SOS Jersey would like to thank SoJDC’s managing Director Lee Henry and Finance Director Simon Neal for meeting with two of our representatives yesterday afternoon (06 July 2015).
To be clear, we do not want this development but, if it is to go ahead, we would rather work with the SoJDC on matters environmental.
This meeting was convened to talk about remediation of the contaminated ground to be dug up from the Esplanade car park during the building of B4, should it go ahead, to look at asbestos issues, and to consider water pollution. The site is being developed into a proposed International Finance Centre (IFC) by the SoJDC should various criteria be met.
One of the main reasons for our concern is the ‘safety’ travesties that have taken place in Jersey at La Collette and the Castle Quay development; the SoJDC were not involved in any way with these incidences, but we are very keen there is no repetition of the reprehensible practises undertaken.
The TTS told SOSJ they consider all the land to be contaminated, thus needing it to all be stored in sealed units/pits; the SoJDC say not. However, on top of the tests already done, there will be more testing across the site, and any hot spots will be investigated more thoroughly.
Mr Henry and Mr Neal spoke fluently about protection from pollution. For example, as is standard, plant vehicles will have their wheels washed before leaving the site. The water will be collected in containers and analysed regularly. Once tested, it will be decided whether to leave the water onsite (ie, it is clean), to feed it into the sewerage system, or to take it to Bellozanne for treatment.
Just to make things more difficult, the Esplanade car park is set on three different types of bedrock (andesite, shale and granite), so the SoJDC have commissioned a full geological survey which is the most comprehensive to date (See links below.). If you understand that sort of thing, it makes interesting (if lengthy) reading, but we hope the JDC will supply an annotated diagram/geological map as well.
Flood concerns-wise, SoJDC say their building(s) will be 800cm-1m above surge level according to an Arup flood risk assessment carried out in May.
Asked about the dangers to workers and the population about asbestos, SoJDC say whenever they find a stash, the area will be dampened (to stop fibres flying off) and all appropriate precautions and disposal will be taken.
SoJDC are agreeing with the States which areas of marine water will be monitored and how often.
On site, there will be daily logs by local firm and contractors Camerons, weekly logs from UK-based firm Parsons Brinckerhoff, monthly reporting and auditing, and spot checks from the States’ Environment officers.
DOCUMENTS FOR YOU TO VIEW
Documents surrounding the development are available to read/download here: https://www.mygov.je/…/P…/PlanningApplicationDocuments.aspx…
Bizarrely, i) when one clicks the links of interest, the document do not open and ii) when you do to save them they are all called ‘document’! Once open, they are easy enough to read on the screen, but if you print them off (landscape view), you may find the text a bit smaller than UK guidelines would recommend.
There are many documents and take some getting through, so Mr Henry has said he will make sure summaries/key points of each one will be written and made available; this will be a great help to all, so we hope they appear soon! We will let you know when they become available.
The SoJDC also hope to set up a new blog to give an idea of what is going on behind the hoardings. They are also considering making a viewing hole as is common practise in the UK.
The geological survey one mentioned above was uploaded on 27 May 2015 and is called ILAP General Memo / Telecom condition 30 AGREED GQERA. Waterman EDD-12346-100-R-3-4-3-JLD.