From Gerard Baudains.
NEW States Members will, by now, have discovered several things: there is much more work than they realised or the public thinks, and they will be unable to keep some of their election promises.

On the matter of workload, members will realise they cannot do everything; our multi-discipline government simply doesn’t allow the time. One has to specialise – and hope one’s colleagues do likewise – but in a different sphere. Generally, it works, but there is a danger with this modus operandi, and that is losing sight of the bigger picture.

There are a number of major issues on the horizon, and it will be all too easy to put them aside until later, only to discover there is no time left to swat up on them. My chief concern in this regard is the proposed Waterfront development.

I do hope members find the time to study this, because there are many matters of concern about it. For instance, why was it decided to have only one developer, when three would have been more competitive and slashed the risk to Jersey? Then there’s the abundance of misleading information. The developer denies every court case, only to be found wanting. Had it not been so serious, I could have laughed when they said there was no Las Vegas court case – I had e-mailed the lawyer there and had the case number, judge’s name and all particulars in my hand.

Members were told the sunken road was necessary to provide a clear pedestrian access – only it won’t. Apart from other roads, the plan clearly shows a new surface road not far from the present one. They were told a dozen or so finance companies wanted to relocate there, when the actual figure was one.

The whole exercise needs to be reviewed and reassessed by the new Assembly, not only regarding the aforementioned details, but regarding the raison d’être also. We are about to take a 25% reduction in income from the finance industry as a result of zero-ten, and the aftermath of the world-wide financial crisis will see many more changes. It may not be too long before the industry’s return to the exchequer becomes but a fraction of decades ago.

Surely building a huge new finance centre (with ten years of serious disruption thrown in) is reckless? Why not honour some of those election promises and actually do something about diversifying our economy by creating a tourism-related development. Who knows, it might also attract our youth and keep them off alcohol and the streets.
Glen-Moor,
Le Vieux Chemin,
St Clement.