'Derelict' Castel hospital could house 90 new homes

Guernsey's government plans to work alongside contractors to potentially build 90 new homes on the Castel Hospital site.

The homes would be three to five bedrooms to satisfy the "higher end of the market".

The proposal also includes building more than 100 apartments for key workers to accommodate medical staff.

The plans would make major changes to the States-owned property, which is estimated to be worth more than £2bn.

Property lead on Policy and Resources (P&R) Deputy David Mahoney said they are looking at ways to develop their sites.

He said: "This building is not in a good condition, but we own various fields around here and so the first phase would be to look at developing those and these sites.

"It's an absolutely dreadful state inside, it's a derelict building in every sense of the word."

Seven other States buildings are said to be for sale, including Hayward House and Beaucette Place.

Swissville, Garden Hill and Lukis House are also among the buildings that could be sold, with services already relocated to Raymond Falla House.

Deputy Mahoney said the profits from these sales will go to other projects: "We've got to move with the times and this is the way forward, any funds that we receive from any sale proceeds will be used to fund other capital building projects."

Deputy David Mahoney said if "he was a betting man he'd put a fiver" on these projects coming to fruition by the end of this term.

Naturally, he's going to say this, but there's a number of hurdles these projects will need to overcome.

Work may be under way with planning, but the phrase goes "no plan survives first contact with the enemy" and if the evidence of 2021 is anything, politicians still remain inherently cautious - especially when it comes to big decisions about planning.

Then there's the matter of getting anything through the actual States. For Deputy Mahoney and P&R, there's less of an issue there because of the simple facts around parliamentary arithmetic in this assembly and the fact those at the top command the votes needed for a majority, but there are calls from the left of the government - namely Deputy Peter Roffey - for more of this land to go towards affordable housing.

The key point though, is that these suggestions are at the moment just that - suggestions. Once we see a planning application or even a policy letter, then we'll know whether these plans really are an up and out of the trenches moment from this P&R.

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