Today’s States debate on the Finance Centre

Deputy Monty Tadier put forward a proposal in two parts which sadly were both defeated.

Click here for more pics.

Perhaps we should take the last bit first. Deputy Monty Tadier put forward a proposal in two parts which sadly were both defeated.

The debate on both sides was generally good, but those arguing for the Esplanade development chose to say those who were questioning it were against the finance industry.

While this may be true about a handful of people, most protestors were voicing legitimate concerns about due process and impacts of this development, and we feel some speakers chose to not only gloss over this but insult people’s comments as being not worthy of consideration.

The full list of Pour and Contre will soon be up on the States site (link below).

The outcome of today’s debate on the Scrutiny issue was not unexpected, and groundworks will shortly commence as planned. The only concession that the COM made was to instruct the SoJDC not to enter into further pre-let agreements until Scrutiny had produced their report.

Deputy Monty Tadier and several other Members, made very powerful speeches. They succinctly put across the concerns that  many have that the COM are railroading this project through against the wishes of the majority of the public who are concerned, mainly about the real  financial risks over and about  the many doubts about the design of the building itself which looks not  dissimilar to the hated incinerator design.

These States Members are also sending out a message that Scrutiny which is the only vehicle that the public and States Members (who are not in the COM and allied clique) have to make sure that democracy is not further eroded.

Our position is that as we are primarily an environmental organisation with many years’ experience with past and often unadmitted pollution issues on the Waterfront, many due to the burial of incinerator ash and asbestos contaminate material on the waterfront, we have a huge task ahead of us. The SoJDC do not accept the findings of their predecessor WEB or the TTS’s views that all  site must be treated a contaminated.

In the meantime, in amongst the wide range of arguments, SOS Jersey still have unanswered concerns about contamination and a mindset that says, ‘Let’s go ahead, even if we are breaking the rules*, because we’ll get let off and be able to carry on.’ We’ll keep you posted on those and other issues.

So, while we await the findings of the Scrutiny report, we must see what can be done to make the extraction, transport and treatment of the material a safe as possible given past errors and pollution issues.  We have therefore today requested a meeting with TTS CEO John Rogers and is Minister Deputy Eddie Noel.

(* The rules drawn up for the Land Owners – you, the Jersey public.)

It is worth mentioning two of the candidates who we interviewed pre -election Peter Mac and Murray Norton. Both then said they were against the Esplanade development, yet both voted with the COM yesterday. Russell Labey supported Monty Tadier’s proposition.

Murray also said outside the States building (and rightly) that if he were to vote against the CM, he would have the politeness to let him know first. At what point did he undertake to tell his parish that he had changed his mind in the first place and why he had shifted positions on this one? Would that not have been polite and helpful too? We had the impression that Murray thought all nay-sayers were against the finance industry per se, but that of course is not the case, and not what yesterday’s vote was about anyway.

Which States members voted Pour/Contre in debates: http://www.statesassembly.gov.je/Pages/Votes.aspx

Scrutiny podcasts: http://www.Scrutiny.gov.je/podcasts/Pages/Podcasts.aspx

Scrutiny transcripts: http://www.Scrutiny.gov.je/Pages/ReviewTranscripts.aspx

Recording of what Senator Ozouf *really* said: http://sosjersey.co.uk/esplanade-let-agreement-the-truth/