St Sampson’s

Andrew Barham

I have five main areas of concern: the state of our environment, education, the local culture of Guernsey and what I perceive to be threats to its continued existence, the current state of the housing and licensing laws and finally, the state of the growing industry.

My current environmental focuses are the proposal to build a sewage treatment facility and an incinerator.

I am in favour of the first item, although I question the type of facility being proposed. I believe that a sewage treatment wetland would be a cheaper and environmentally friendlier solution than the hi-tech plant being proposed.

I am not in favour of an incinerator since such a facility will create more environmental problems than it solves.

Instead, I would like to see the tip being run in such a way as to reduce the amount of rubbish going into it, as is already being done on the mainland.

The unnecessary proliferation of rigid plastic packaging for many consumer items also contributes to the problem, and should be examined.

I am also concerned about the steady erosion of the local culture, which is all too rapidly being assimilated into the mainland one.

This process is being exacerbated by several factors, including some of the proposed changes to both the housing laws and the system of taxation, both of which are being implemented to appease large off-island businesses at the expense of local people and their businesses.

I believe that we need to find a way to successfully reinvigorate the growing industry. In this context, I believe that the way forward might be to try and capitalise on the growing organic market.

This is a severely condensed version of my manifesto. For the full version please email me at buckmyluck@yahoo.co.uk. I also plan to post it to all registered voters in the parish of St Sampson’s.