£88m secured for post-16 project

The Performing Arts Centre will form part of the new post-16 campus

Guernsey’s States has agreed to spend £88m on the building of new post-16 facilities at Les Ozouets.

Deputies voted by 35 – 3 to approve the proposals from Policy and Resources (P&R) to borrow around £55m and spend £33m from government reserves.

The scheme will see the old St Peter Port School demolished and the new Guernsey Institute built on the site.

It means the sixth form centre is likely to stay at La Mare De Carteret High School until at least 2029.

Around £1m of the funding which has been earmarked for post-16 education will be spent on building the foundations for a new separate Sixth Form Centre at the Les Ozouets campus.

Education, Sport and Culture President Andrea Dudley-Owen hopes students won't be at the sixth form centre for longer than four years

Education, Sport and Culture President Andrea Dudley-Owen said with this decision work could be done to go out to tender on the demolition of St Peter Port School with her hope that it could start before the end of 2024.

The borrowing for the project will be funded by new revenue from higher corporate taxes, according to P&R.

The committee has estimated the States will be able to bring in £30m from the new OECD pillar 2 corporate tax changes, rather than the originally estimated £10m.

Deputy Ferbrache said he was dissapointed the estimates on how much could be earned by corporate tax changes had changed since he had left P&R

Former Chief Minister Peter Ferbrache criticised the estimate he received from States officials and independent experts when he was the President of P&R.

He was joined by his former colleague on the committee David Mahoney who said what the States had agreed to was unfunded borrowing, which was why he could not support the proposal.

Employment and Social Security Committee President Peter Roffey said he "reluctantly" supported the plan.

He said it wasn't "responsible" government and locked the next group of States members into increasing taxes in the next political term.

With funding secured for the project the current College of FE site at the Coutanchez is set to be sold off so housing can be built there.

Educational leaders at the College have expressed their frustration with the quality of the current facilities.