Guernsey head teachers ‘devastated’ by post-16 campus delay

Louise Misselke said leaks at the College of Further Education's catering unit had led to the facility being closed because of health and safety

Educational leaders in Guernsey have reacted with dismay to a decision to halt the building of a new post-16 campus at Les Ozouets.

Deputies voted last week to proceed with the project, but decided not to fund the project through new borrowing.

Jacki Hughes, executive principal for the Guernsey Institute, said she was "devastated" by the decision.

She said it would leave children learning in "sub-standard facilities for the foreseeable".

Conversations are under way amongst senior politicians to find a way of funding the project through the budget, which is set for debate on Tuesday 7 November.

Ms Hughes said the decision may mean considering reducing the number of programmes which were offered to students.

"It's going to mean huge disappointment for staff, I've had messages from some of them with questions and various other expletives," she said.

'Persistent leaks'

Louise Misselke, principal of Guernsey's College of Further Education, mirrored the disappointment of her colleague.

She recently said leaks in the college's catering unit had led to the facility being closed because of health and safety.

She said: "We have persistent leaks in our construction and brickwork buildings.

"For us at the college, a new build has been part of the plans for around 30 years so we are incredibly disappointed."

Alan Sillett, from Guernsey's Hospitality Association, said water had made its facilities "unusable".

He said: "The impact of having facilities that are well past their sell-by date, and are currently unusable due to water ingress stand to impact the sector [which] has managed to attract over 20 apprentices, the largest number in well over a decade to work and study at TGI college."

Previously, Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen, the president of the Committee for Education, Sport & Culture, said the committee was "very disappointed by the decision of the Assembly, which stops the much-needed and long overdue investment in post-16 education".

She added: 'Our committee will need to take the next few weeks to consider all options available to us.

"Doing nothing is not an option, which we have consistently advised the States, as we have simply run out of viable real estate in which to deliver education."

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