Council moves elderly centre to councillor’s mother’s leasehold

Kringvarp Føroya reports that Tórshavn City Council has voted to move a planned elderly care centre in Kollafjørður from Todnes to Norðreki, where the mother of council member Bergur Robert Dam Jensen is the registered leaseholder. The decision has halted work on the project.

Dam Jensen proposed the move at a council meeting on Thursday. The council had approved proceeding with the Todnes plan a year earlier.

The council first voted nine to four to allow the proposal to be put to a vote. The relocation was then approved by seven votes to six.

According to the land registry, the Faroese Land Foundation owns the land at Norðreki, while Dam Jensen’s mother is registered as its leaseholder.

Heidi Lava Elgeirsdóttir, a member of the council’s Health and Elderly Committee and its Construction and Planning Committee, voted against the move. She told Kringvarp Føroya that council members are responsible for declaring any conflict of interest in a matter before a vote is held.

Elgeirsdóttir said the decision had stopped work on the elderly care centre and would probably delay the construction project. She said this was regrettable.

Kringvarp Føroya said it had tried to obtain answers from Dam Jensen about the relocation and his conflict of interest, but he did not respond to phone calls, text messages or emails.