A PARISH official believes Policy Council plans to shut down La Gazette Officielle in the Guernsey Press would be a backward step.
Castel senior constable Chris Workman said it would be bad for communication.
‘We’re not sure if La Gazette is done away with whether we would be able to publish our parish meetings and information, for example rubbish collection, dog tax and so on,’ said Mr Workman.
‘So we have to ask, “Would it go under the Press’s Parish Matters pages, in which case would we still pay for it?”,’ he said.
‘I definitely feel the proposals are a retrograde step.
‘For elderly people like my mother, it really is too soon. It’s obviously a financial thing, but in Guernsey costs are high - everybody has to pay higher prices.
‘Perhaps in 20 years’ time, when I am an old man and everybody is used to computers, it would be right to go online. But anyone without a computer just couldn’t possibly do without La Gazette in the Press.
‘As far as the constables here are concerned, the Press has our backing.’
This month’s Billet d’Etat revealed proposals to change how notices are published, with the possibility of them being online with a printed version displayed on public noticeboards.
It would also serve as the death knell to La Gazette - which dates back to 1842 when it started in La Gazette de Guernesey.
St Sampson’s deputy Sam Maindonald said she would be asking questions when the States meets next week and was not sure whether the plans had been prompted by purely financial reasoning.
‘I need to question their motives,’ said Deputy Maindonald.
‘I’m confused because it was one of our objectives in the Government Business Plan that the States would communicate better with the public,’ she said.
‘The pricing aspect obviously needs looking at, so the States get the best deal from using taxpayers’ money, but I am not sure we are doing it just on the basis of cost.’
Deputy Maindonald added that there was legislation that required the States to publish notices in La Gazette.
‘That will need to be changed, evidently, if the changes go through,’ she said.
Backing the words of Guernsey Press general manager and director Mark Lewis, Deputy Barry Brehaut said that the Policy Council needed to liaise with the newspaper to see how to bring the notices into the modern world.
‘The current format of La Gazette is simply outdated,’ said the deputy. ‘I think that the Press and the Policy Council need to negotiate on how to bring La Gazette into 2008.
‘Parish items need to be given more prominence in the paper.
‘The Press is already doing this, with its Parish Matters pages.’
And Deputy Brehaut said that not everyone used the web regularly enough to read La Gazette notices online.
The Guernsey Press has published La Gazette Officielle online for several years.
‘I would like to keep it [in the paper] but in a totally reworked form,’ said Deputy Brehaut. ‘It needs to be closer to the centre of the publication.’
* View and search a year’s worth of Gazette notices online here.
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