A MOVE to overturn last week’s decision to approve the Esplanade development has been lodged with the States.

Deputy Gerard Baudains, the politician who first raised the multi-million-dollar lawsuit against Harcourt in the States, has tabled the proposition to reverse last week’s decision.

He says that States Members made their decision on the back of ‘inaccurate information, information that is out of date – and other information has been withheld’.

The St Clement Deputy was rubbished by Chief Minister Frank Walker, Transport Minister Guy de Faye and then-Waterfront Enterprise Board director Senator Jim Perchard for raising the issue of the lawsuit, which they initially said had not been brought, but the existence of which Senator Walker confirmed after the debate.

In accordance with States rules, the proposal has also been signed by Deputies Bob Hill, Alan Breckon, Roy Le Hérissier and Geoff Southern.

Over the course of a three-day debate last week, States Members agreed the principle of lowering Route de la Libération and building a 14-block financial/residential development on top of the road and the Esplanade car park.

In the report accompanying his proposition, lodged late in yesterday’s sitting, Deputy Baudains wrote: ‘We have been assured guarantees will ensure nothing can go wrong – but lack details of those guarantees and their robustness.

‘We cannot responsibly proceed with this project until all these questions have been adequately answered. We must therefore rescind our decision, and allow the Council of Ministers to bring forward a fresh projet that lists alternatives (or explain why there aren’t any) and is accompanied by full and accurate information regarding the way the Waterfront development is to be achieved.’

But Environment Minister Freddie Cohen told the States yesterday that the plans for the Esplanade Square development – the first part of last week’s proposal that dealt with the planning side of the project, rather than the financial side – had already been formally adopted as Planning policy.

No date has been set for the debate on the proposition.