The island’s top civil servant has said “lessons will be learned” but did not apologise for the hurt caused by a proposal to zone land near Jurby Airfield.
Jurby residents wanted two things from the meeting on Monday nights, an explanation and an apology for the distress the government has caused.
To a large extent, they got the first, with airport director Gary Cobb outlining why the land was included in the draft area plan and his department’s role in it.
The inability of the Isle of Man government to say I’m sorry astonishes me.
A Jurby resident
Mr Cobb also, eventually, apologised for the stress caused to residents saying “I do see the impact”.
However, government CEO Andy Ralphs would not apologise when asked by residents, preferring to say lessons will be learned.
He did also admit that “it would have been wise, in hindsight for us to highlight specific areas such as this”.
Lessoned learned
A resident who said she feared her house being demolished if the plans had advanced, told the government that residents “will not stand for this level of incompetence”, adding “we should ban that phrase, because lessons are never learned and nobody is ever held accountable”
During his reply, Mr Ralphs was challenged to apologise after admitting that there “could have been better engagement”.
After a resident asked who would apologise to them, Mr Ralphs said: “We need to wait for the planning inspector’s report, that report will be coming out in October and if there’s further lessons we need to learn, any recommendation.”
After being interrupted he added: “It just feels whatever I say is not going to land, but what I can promise is that if there needs to be lessons learned and there are recommendations that come from the planning process, then we will learn them lessons.
“That’s all I can say at this point, I can’t say anything more than that at this point. In hindsight, some of the engagement could have been better and we’ve accepted that.”
Applause
In a meeting full of emotion, Tim Johnston MHK would be the first to apologise to residents, after 82 minutes, which drew a loud applause from those attending.
The Ayre and Michael MHK said that while Mr Cobb had said there is no proposal to build an airport in Jurby, the way it had all be handled by the government left a lot to be desired.
He said: “I think what people are saying tonight is that the chances of that [a new airport] are so remote, but for people on the ground it is real and I am very sorry for the stress and anxiety that those people directly affected but also those living in this community have felt over this process.”
Mr Johnston added that the meeting was chance to “draw a line” under what had happened but also a chance to ensure resident are properly involved going forward.
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