Wednesday 27 November 2019
General Update
Sir,
The year has been dominated by efforts to protect our connectivity. At the beginning of the year a hard battle was won to ensure the rehabilitation of our runway. I am pleased that this is going ahead as planned.
The months following have been dominated by the public service obligation contracting process for our air links and efforts to ensure our island, and the bailiwick, is properly connected.
These efforts continued throughout the year, led by the committee for economic development.
We have also had preliminary talks about the terms of reference for a review of the 1948 agreement. As of today we are still waiting to finally agree the scope for this work.
On the wider front, Alderney, like Guernsey, has been dealing with the outwash from a possible no-deal Brexit, and all the uncertainties that this has created.
This has taken up much time. It has taken up much of our civil servants time, including the law officers who otherwise might have been progressing other legislative concerns. We are waiting to progress a number of matters including our partnership law, and legislation around employment, the minimum wage and disability discrimination.
However, one good achievement has been the extension of our territorial waters from 3 - 12 miles, along with the rest of the bailiwick. And we have a clear understanding that Alderney, Guernsey, and Sark, all have the right to manage their marine resources in a manner that benefits each jurisdiction.
Alderney is the closest bailiwick island to France. We share the race - the strong tidal flow which has the potential for green energy, and a cheaper, cleaner economic future. We are working with Alderney electricity to consider how best we can secure our future energy and develop tidal power in the future.
There are some good news stories, and I will highlight just a few.
Improvements in our population - our resident population rose to 2,039 by September 2018 - a steady but sustainable rise of 2.3% over five years.
Improvements in our economy - average earnings up by 2.6% in march 2019. And an increase of 7% in the number of employers on the island.
On the financial side, through good house-keeping, we have balanced our books and even returned a small surplus to the states of Guernsey for two years in a row
The construction industry and housing sectors are doing well and we have established a nacent cannabis/ cbd oil industry.
The first phase of our project to extend the connaught care home has started.
Alderney electricity have agreed heads of terms with simec atlantic, for a power purchase agreement that would see Alderney connected to France by an electric cable.
The states of Alderney is reviewing its governance and has agreed to move towards to separating our legislative and executive functions.
We have a new code of conduct that reflects commonwealth parliamentary association standards.
We have hosted a number of very successful international festivals which have included the wilder islands and blue islands summit which resulted in the signing of the blue islands charter.
We had our usual annual events, including our literary festival, performing arts festival, and chamber music festival, the annual fly in, and air races, the hill climb, golf tournaments and of course Alderney week, and the fishing festival. Our football team continue to play the best football in the bailiwick in the Guernsey priaulx league.
A growing number of number of visitors are arriving to visit our new Alderney bird observatory and this is gaining a huge reputation in the birding community, as the geographical migration passage of Alderney is outstanding.
The dig on longis common near the nunnery, revealed extraordinary finds about our roman and Iron Age past and there is clearly much scope for ongoing work that can add attractiveness to our island as a visitor destination. We are working on plans to exploit this. My good friend Deputy Ferbrache visited the nunnery dig and was impressed, i know he loves anything of great age!
The nunnery is one of the best preserved roman forts in northern Europe and this year we have been able to ensure that it is open for public enjoyment.
We have continued with the work necessary to combine and repatriate property taxes and look forward to 2021 when we will be able to set them in a manner that most suits our community and economy.
The little ferry had another good year, connecting Alderney and Guernsey through the summer, subsidised by the states of Alderney.
We continue to work with those who wish to develop Fort Tourgis and who have secured Dutch government guarantees.
Sir....I have been brief, but I hope you will note just how much of what I have talked about, is fundamentally linked to the maintenance of good transport links. That is the pivotal driver of our whole economy in Alderney.
In September and October we experienced what happens when transport fails. One aeroplane grounded for maintenance for nine weeks, another reaching the end of its life. It only took weather delays and further technical problems to plunge the island into a desperate position. People couldn't travel. We lost business. If Alderney goes into recession, if its economy fails because of the loss of this pivotal driver, the whole Bailiwick will feel the economic impact, including our sister island and partner, Guernsey.
So to conclude, we continue to work for a good, friendly conclusion in the 1948 agreement, for we are friends and partners and we must all not lose sight of that in the coming months of discussion.
I thank you all for listening to me and thank you sir.
