A new administrator starts today at the Summerhaven home for the physically disabled, with chairman John Powell hoping the appointment will settle longstanding complaints over the facility.

“It was mutually agreed between the Government and ourselves,” Mr Powell told The Royal Gazette.

“Our issues have turned into a he-said, she-said situation. We agreed that one of the ways of putting this to rest once and for all was the appointment of an administrator for three months. We will find out who has been telling the truth.”

Groups of staff and patients were at odds over whether or not the facility was being mismanaged, with the dispute going public in November after former Opposition MP Glenn Blakeney raised the issue twice in Parliament. Mr Powell said staff were “very comfortable” with the administrator, a former worker at the facility who knew residents by name.

“We are positive that the outcome is going to be in Summerhaven’s favour,” he said.

Meanwhile, renovations at Summerhaven, which has 14 rooms in its main building, are down to the final three units.

“We have been getting an awful lot of applications lately,” Mr Powell added. “We had applications from four people alone last week. It’s interesting that even after bad publicity there can still be so much demand.”