TO use a popular phrase, they just don’t get it, do they? Despite having been rebuffed on two previous occasions, the Council of Ministers are again attempting to foist an organisation called the Jersey Development Company on the Island.

The idea of a development company to take charge of all publicly owned Island property was first mooted at the inception of ministerial government. Since then, a majority of States Members have made it abundantly clear that they are deeply suspicious of the proposed structure.

Why this should be the case throws light on the assertion that ministers simply are not understanding what is wrong with their plan and why it has already been thrown out on two occasions.

The States have rejected the JDC plan for a range of reasons, but one of them stands out above all the others. The notion that the proposed body should be a stepped-up Waterfront Enterprise Board and should be based on that quango is an affront to common sense and a denial of the importance of learning lessons from the grossest of past mistakes.

Again, in terms of just not getting it, ministers do not seem to appreciate the extent to which Islanders feel let down – angry and betrayed – by what has happened on the St Helier waterfront.

The idea that a new quango responsible for making sensible use of all public sector property should be a successor, extension or revamped clone of WEB, an organisation that can be judged only against the background of years of failure, simply beggars belief.

Ministers might counter-punch by pointing to the recent report by consultants DTZ, which concluded that WEB has performed well, given the important proviso of the difficult circumstances in which it has operated.

That might be enough to convince anyone who is in total denial about the deeply disappointing state of the Waterfront that all is well. However, it simply will not wash with anyone who visits what should have been our showcase development, views its manifest deficiencies from a distance or drives past its hideously unattractive outer edge.

A supposed safeguard for the JDC as it is now conceived is the extent to which its activities would be overseen by the Treasury Minister. This is not enough to redeem the plan. Indeed, given the track record of the Treasury in attempting to dispose of property in the past – notably in the case of the old College for Girls building – it ought merely to increase suspicion about the entire proposal.