TOP-LEVEL civil service intervention into how any review should be carried out into the airport firefighters pay disagreement has not shifted the attitudes of those deputies backing two different paths.

In what is believed to be a virtually unprecedented move, the States chief executive Mike Brown and high level legal adviser Crown Advocate Richard McMahon wrote to all deputies on Friday pulling apart a proposed requete by Deputy Mary Lowe for a tribunal of inquiry into what happened when pay negotiations broke down between the airport firefighters and the Public Sector Remuneration Committee.

It also outlined pros and cons of a well-publicised alternative Scrutiny Committee-led review, as well as analysing four other options.

It concluded that an independent inquiry with broad terms of reference was needed to maintain confidence in the governance of the island.

The whole issue was discussed yesterday by the Policy Council where Deputy Mark Dorey was expected to report back on a meeting held last Thursday with Deputy Lowe and Scrutiny.

Deputy Lowe (pictured) wants to press ahead with debating her requete at the mid-July States meeting set aside to debate the government business plan.

‘I’m not going to get drawn into what the civil service has sent around. To me the way of dealing with this is through the political chamber of the States Assembly. These letters have been sent out when my requete has not even been published yet or gone out to States members,’ she said.