- Mr Guard MBE cited a history of projects that never materialised ‘going back to Napoleonic times.’
- The renowned composer referred to the ‘endless architectural drawings published in the paper.’
- He added that the problem was not unique to the Isle of Man.
- However, the former media boss mentioned one example: the long-running Lord Street revamp, which he says has been going on – for an astonishing 38 YEARS.
A highly-respected Manx documentarian has spoken about the culture of doomed building developments on the Isle of Man.
In a long-form interview to be aired by Expose.News next month, Mr Guard – who was awarded an MBE for services to Manx Culture and Heritage – spoke about one example and said that the ‘history of it is tortuous.’
A shortened version of the video is shown above, and a transcript is reproduced below.
His comments echo the growing number of Isle of Man residents who have expressed frustration with infrastructure dreams that have never materialised, or suffered severe delays because of complications.
Earlier this month Expose.News published a dossier of cancelled government programmes sent in by readers, going back to 2006.
Isle of Man residents complained about the derelict sites at Summerland, Park Road and now Lord Street.
Our story was entitled ‘Never Happened.’
But Mr Guard – who made the acclaimed Charles Guard series for Manx Radio – joked that he going to write a book with similar theme.
He smiled: ‘One project I might do is a book called ‘This Nearly was Ours,’ which would feature all the schemes that the island has been promised, since Napoleonic Times actually.’
Mr Guard is an administrator of the Manx Heritage Foundation (now Culture Vannin), an organisation dedicated to the support and promotion of Manx culture.
The most recent example to attract controversy is on Lord Street, in which an architectural design was unveiled but then shelved, amid a complicated court case.
Mr Guard MBE spoke about his own memories of the project, recalling that a minister first announced a new hotel and pool ‘with flumes’ on Lord Street – IN 1987.
But he lamented that the Douglas quayside site is still a car park, after all these years.
The old bus station was knocked down but never rebuilt, he added.
His comments follow a £90 million court case over the latest Lord Street debacle.
The Department of Infrastructure and Treasury are being sued for alleged corruption and malfeasance, which they deny.
Mr Guard said: ‘I remember, in about 1987, when I was reporting the Tynwald sittings – our parliament. The minister…the new minister, announced to everybody that he had done a massive hotel deal, and a wonderful hotel was going to be built there. It would have a swimming pool with flumes. Now, we’d never heard the word flumes before and this was wonderful. And here we are years later, and it is still a derelict site with a car park.’
The Lord Street development has come back into the news recently after a court heard that yet another developer was stopped in its tracks without good reason, according to the claimant Sondica Group Incorporated.
The costs have spiraled out of control upto £90 million.
The presiding judge Deemster Corlett said that ‘he nearly fell off his chair’ at the eye-watering cost of disclosure, and asked why the DoI could not simply search a couple of box files.
Mr Guard MBE picked up on a theme which has been questioned by other prominent Isle of Man figures – the culture of professionals who make money from schemes even when they are not built.
The point has also been previously made by former politician Juan Turner.
Mr Turner criticised the culture of consultancy, which has mushroomed in government departments, leading to more red-tape, according to observers.
Mr Turner told Expose.News: ‘And what they’ve done is they’ve brought all these highly paid posts in, but then still go out to consultants… a lot now is farmed out to consultants when really you have to ask why we’re paying the senior officials so much.
‘Sorry, this is an island of 80,000 people. And the departments…and…the chief executives should have their fingers, on the pulse. They’re highly paid, and everything gets farmed out to consultants, vast amounts of money, even for relatively minor projects.
‘It’s astonishing the money that’s blowing out.’
In a similar vein, Mr Guard told Expose.News: ‘But recently we’ve had endless architectural drawings published in the paper.
‘The big news scheme here, the big news scheme there – and I dunno who these companies are – they must pay architects to do all this, because that’s not cheap. And mostly we never hear of them again. Now, what attracts them to do this? I don’t know. Maybe it is trying to capture money for investment.’
In the case of the Sondica legal action, the Isle of Man’s Department of Infrastructure employed consultants called Lambert Smith Hampton, known widely in the property world as LSH.
Sondica claim that the DoI made unlawful efforts to persuade LSH to change a key report to favour a rival bidder, which is denied.
Transcript of Interview Clip of Charles Guard MBE
Well, Lord Street is an area of Douglas near the quay, which had housing eventually – it was slum housing, Victorian housing. It was all cleared away and they built a superb bus station there, which was the island’s main bus station. You caught the bus to the airport. This is in the sixties. There were toilets and a shop and all sorts of things. It seemed to work. It was removed and demolished, and the site was left empty. And I remember in about 1987 when I was reporting the Tynwald sittings – our parliament. The minister…the new minister, announced to everybody that he had done a massive hotel deal and a wonderful hotel was going to be built there. It would have a swimming pool with flumes. Now, we’d never heard the word flumes before and this was wonderful. And here we are years later, and it is still a derelict site with a car park.
Car park is not a proper car park. People are just parking their cars there. And honestly, the history of it is tortuous. I couldn’t even remember how many different people have owned it. The Douglas Corporation sold it for a pound or bought it back for a plan. I mean, it’s just got very, very complicated. And like any big development, we’ve been promised and promised and nothing has happened. But that’s not unique to the Isle of Man. The economy everywhere is struggling, and we have had some excellent developments recently, but that site seems to have got very tangled up with all sorts of issues. And we are still waiting for anything to be built there. One project I might do is a book called ‘This Nearly was Ours,’ which would feature all the schemes that the island has been promised, since Napoleonic Times actually. But recently we’ve had endless architectural drawings published in the paper.
The big news scheme here, the big news scheme there – and I dunno who these companies are – they must pay architects to do all this, because that’s not cheap. And mostly we never hear of them again. Now, what attracts them to do this? I don’t know. Maybe it is trying to capture money for investment. Some have worked, there have been some superb buildings done, but the majority we’re still waiting for. And I don’t always agree with the architectural designs, but then I’m a bit of a conservationist and a member of the Victorian Society. Not, that I want Victorian architecture to be endlessly reproduced, but I do think that sometimes the designs are a little insensitive. That is a personal opinion. I do understand. But what is it that stops these buildings being built?
