THE Hargreaves family is delighted to have won the right to carry on living in Guernsey. ‘It has been a very difficult four years for all of our family, creating untold strain on our daily lives,’ said Stephen Hargreaves.
He and his wife, Gisela, a teacher, and their two teenage children were on holiday and not in court two weeks ago when an overnight deal was struck between Crown Advocate Richard McMahon and their counsel, Peter Ferbrache.
‘We are especially pleased that our children, who have always been our priority throughout this ordeal, can now have some continuity in their education at this critical time - our daughter taking her A-levels and our son working towards his GCSEs next year - and enjoy the friendships they have developed over the last 10 years.’
The Hargreaves used the human rights law to win the right to stay here after Housing turned down their bid to extend their licence.
Settlement of the appeal against the department’s refusal followed an eventful day in court, where the defence sat through the Hargreaves’ submissions and then requested an adjournment to provide further evidence on why the most recent application was rejected, but Lt-Bailiff Richard Southwell denied it.
Mr Hargreaves declined to comment further as he had yet to digest the full extent of the settlement.
However, the offer is almost certain to involve extending Mr Hargreaves’ licence to 15 years or an equivalent measure which would give the family full residential status.
The family moved to Guernsey in 1996 on a five-year licence when Mr Hargreaves was appointed director of construction firm Littlewoods. In May 2001, he was granted a further two years after being appointed managing director of the same company.
However, his status was jeopardised in March 2003 when Littlewoods went into liquidation.
Under a temporary licence granted until July 2003, he took on the role of quantity surveyor for building consultancy firm EAM, but Housing refused to grant him another licence as that would have allowed the family to live in Guernsey long enough to achieve residency.
An appeal against that decision was dismissed in the Royal Court in March 2006.
When the human rights law came into effect locally, the Hargreaves hoped it would change their circumstances and submitted five applications.
All were turned down by letter in October.
Housing minister Dave Jones said it was still too early for his department to comment on the case and its possible implications.
However, he insisted the settlement should not delay the population debate, which is scheduled for the States meeting at the end of the month. That has already been delayed twice.
‘I don’t think we should delay the population debate simply because housing licences only cover 7% of Guernsey’s population.’
Article posted on 14th April, 2007 - 12.00am
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