Wednesday 21 March 2018
General Update
I am pleased and honoured to be able to present the first annual report from Alderney - and I thank you all for recommending and supporting the inclusion of such a report.
In 2008 our economy was buoyant. Our on-line Gambling Industry, established in 2000 was, and indeed still is, bringing in much needed capital. And we hope that this will continue.
Alderney had a thriving tourism industry, dependent on reliable and affordable air links to Guernsey, and to the UK. Sadly, by the end of 2008 we had lost one of our airlines and the Bournemouth route and the Jersey link, even for Summer specials, had been abandoned. And tourism began to decline. Now we have about 58,000 passengers movements per year and are served by just two routes and only one airline. We hope that this is about to change.
In 2008, we had small financial services and fishing industries. These too are now declining.
The greatest changes though have been in our demographics. Although we are no longer suffering declines in population, in 2008 about 12% of our population was 15 and under, and 25% was over 65. In 2016, 9.9% of our population was under 15 but 34% over 65.
We have progressed a number of economic and social issues, which I will summarise later, but I will start with transport and the FAB link - two issues which have dominated 2017.
Air transport:
In October we learned that Economic Development was rewriting Guernsey's transport policy and that the previously accepted PSO approach would be applied only to the GSY - Alderney route. Alderney - Southampton would no longer receive support. This was devastating news and we have challenged its logic.
We are pleased that there is support for financially-supported competitively-let Public Service Obligation contracts on both routes.
We would very much like to see how Aurigny has arrived at the figure of 3.2 million projected loss on the Alderney routes.
We have competitively tendered our Aviation Fuel supplies, and we continue to lobby constructively around any residual Medevac problems
We welcome Waves, and of course we hope to see Air Alderney operational in the near future.
Sea Transport:
We have examined a number of regular ferry service options - unfortunately, most were deemed to be high risk and/or financially unsustainable.
More recently we have followed Guernsey and Jersey's initiative for an inter-island service with a bolt-on extension to Alderney - though this also appears to have been unsuccessful
For last year's Summer we agreed continued financial support for the Bumblebee although, interestingly the average uptake was only 50% of the passenger capacity - 6 as opposed to 12 both ways.
We are now looking at other options
FAB Link
We have sought a better commercial deal from the promoters of the FAB link - and some substantial progress has been made.
Amendments to the Land Use Plan have slowed the process.
The ARE commercial and seabed licences have been terminated and ACRE is now seeking to recover moneys owed to them and to others by ARE.
As soon as current legal proceedings are resolved we hope to revisit the market and negotiate new renewable energy resource deals.
Health
The Wilson Report led us to closer liaison with the Committee for Health & Social Care
Professor Wilson also reported on options for our primary health care services - these are requiring further deliberation and liaison with HSC on the KPMG initiative.
Alderney needs a bespoke solution suited to its small population and isolated position
We have also liaised with the Committee for Employment & Social Security on an Equality and Rights Programme and Disability Discrimination Legislation - again noting the need for bespoke solutions.
Sadly the fall-out from the investigations into the Eagle Medical Practice continues.
We are concerned that we may be about to lose our only dental practice
And we also have worries about the timely delivery of prescription drugs
Education
I would like to thank the previous committee for ESC for all that it did to support St Anne's School GCSE results for 2017 were better than they have been for several years.
I will now mention in title only some of our main areas of focus during 2017. I will be happy to expand during question time if required
- Digital Connectivity
- Alderney Bird Observatory and other matters
- Code of Practice for Archaeological Activities
- Environment law
- Brexit
- Immigration /Investment Visas
- Governance
- Partnership Law
- Big Data Opportunities
- Taxation Law
- Company Law
- Numismatics and Philately
- Implications of new Financial relationship
- Same Sex Marriage
- Assisted Dying and Organ Donation
- Relationship with our French neighbours
Replacement CEO/Supplementary Commercial Manager
A new CEO started this month, and we now have a commercial manager, Mr Chris Brock, who will work on the more commercial of our initiatives.
I would also like to record our sincere thanks for appointing Adrian Lewis as our temporary CEO.
As I close, you will have noticed no mention of the breakwater and the airport, or our own initiatives to protect and improve the built environment and our infrastructure:
The breakwater is, of course, Guernsey's responsibility. We are continuously nervous about its condition. It provides vital protection to our harbour.
We now have an up-to-date property asset register.
Work is underway with the renovation of the buildings encapsulating our Roman Fort.
Major repairs to St Anne's church, the Cathedral of the Channel Islands, have been completed.
We are now looking at plans for bringing more of our iconic buildings back into sensitive uses
The electrical network upgrade continues and is already delivering benefits.
Both the Water Board and Works Department have added value to the above by taking open-trench opportunities to progress their own upgrades.
Another matter not dwelt on has been revisions to our Land Use Plan and Planning Laws. Changes to the regulations for protecting our Green Belt have aroused emotions, but changes were passed last week, and we look forward to being able to showcase our new approaches.
So finally to our Vision for the future. We:
- see our Government as facilitating economic development, not a direct player.
- we want to be a dynamic part of the Bailiwick, complementing, not necessarily replicating, activity on Guernsey.
- we want to work with Guernsey and be properly consulted on matters that have Bailiwick-wide impacts.
We need effective transport links - and we need Guernsey to take into account how investment and support for those links impacts our economy - although we are supporting a number of initiatives domestically this is not something we can do ourselves.
- would like to rebalance our population so that young people with families find Alderney an attractive place to live and work.
- recognise the importance of value-for-money and have instituted new procurement regimes.
We believe the key to unlocking economic regeneration lies with improvements to our transport links, both by air and by sea - and for this reason we are:
- promoting new links
- seeking to work with Guernsey on a Bailiwick-wide policy that focuses on transport as both 'economic enabler' and 'life-line'
- seeking urgent progress on the project to rehabilitate our runway and to return its width to the CAA 23metres standard; and
- now investigating ways to rehabilitate our airport terminal building - possibly as a joint venture with the private-sector.
I hope that this report has been useful. I thank you for all that you do to support our small island, and I am sure that we will continue work together for the common good of both our islands.
And of course we would love to see those of you who have either never visited, or not visited for some time, to spend a day - and may be even a night - with us sometime in the near future - when the weather gets better !
If I am unable to give full answers I hope that Members who have questions will allow me to take them back to Alderney for the appropriate answers.
