Latest from the States
Wednesday 27th July 2011, 2:25PM BST.
A BID to delay the £80m. airport project was thrown out this afternoon.
Deputy John Gollop brought the sursis, which lost by 38 votes to six.
He was accused of panicking about making a tough decision.
But it has not all been plain sailing for Public Services refurbishment plans.
It faced strong questions from deputies about some of the costs, including £1m. earmarked for a project manager.
Department minister Bernard Flouquet opened by saying it was an essential project, but warned because of its complexity there would be disruption.
Full details will appear in tomorrow’s Guernsey Press.
HOW the States helps some of the poorest in Guernsey with their housing costs will change.
Social Security and Housing’s green paper was passed this afternoon and they will now report back with firm proposals to integrate two schemes.
But there was some criticism of Social Security’s intention to apply for an above RPI increase to the benefit cap for next year.
Individuals currently needing help with rent in the private sector are assessed under Social Security’s supplementary benefit scheme, which tops up incomes and helps with housing costs but is capped at £405 a week.
By contrast, tenants in social housing under Housing’s rent rebate scheme have their rent reduced when it assesses what a tenant can afford to pay.
WORK on refurbishing St Peter Port School in a £3.7m. project was given the go-ahead by the States this morning.
The former secondary school has long been earmarked as a base for the Music Service, Youth Service, Youth Theatre and some College of Further Education courses, allowing the department to return its Brock Road site to be redeveloped as social housing.
GUERNSEY French enthusiasts will put forward a plan to keep language alive in September.
Deputy David De Lisle raised fears about the language’s future during question time.
CONFIDENTIAL legal settlements made by departments will not be investigated by the States Assembly Constitution Committee
Deputy John Gollop, pictured, has asked if the committee would probe whether out-of-court settlements with privacy clauses made by States bodies could be disclosed to the public.
It follows pressure for the Policy Council to release information on its recent secret deal with a UK fishing company.
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Tough luck John. Guernsey is of finite space and of limited resources. Let’s hope the Environment Department apply the same criteria to the Airport Planning Application as they apply to applications for allotment sheds and garden fences.
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Isn’t It about time that this ruling body started to use any brains they might be endowed with and see the sense in a new location for an Airport.
It makes no difference how much money is spent on the present airport it’s out of tune.
Cut the the old fashioned way of things and think new.
It’s the finance primarily who want new things, then they should be taxed enough to help pay for a new site.
They manged the North beach, and the Houge, in fact many things were done.
Yet this ‘Stick-in-the-mud’ present States are just a bunch old stubborn people.
Have a vote by the people; after all the States shout loud and clear about DEMOCRACY, then let’s have some.
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What I find a mystery, yet not in a way; is the fact that the UK can put to tender any big project, like the New Trains as an example, and by so doing put thousands of British workers out of work.by giving the ‘job’ to a German firm
Yet our airport has to have a British company to do our work.
Why isn’t this ‘Job’ not put to tender in the at least European world?
I suspect something funny, not only in this case
Answers why wasn’t it out to tender, other than to the UK?.
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The thing that amazes me is that nowhere do I see any serious investigation into an obvious alternative to the shifting of the runway….. shorten the runway instead.
In all the different reports, studies and debates, one has looked at shifting the runway, extending to the east the RESA, the introduction of an EMAS arrestor bed and the consequences of making no changes.
But very little thought has been given to the possibility of shortening the runway. In the Mott MacDonald report there is one paragraph on this alternative, and I quote…
“Shortening the useable runway length would seriously restrict some of the aircraft operations that could continue to take place at Guernsey Airport. In particular, the commercial operations would find themselves
having to take-off or land at lighter weights, or be restricted to the use of fewer aircraft types. This has been rejected by the Airport and its advisors as unacceptable – a decision endorsed by the States of Guernsey as neither being in the interests of the aircraft operators, nor in the interests of the residents of Guernsey.”
Note : the report does not investigate which aircraft could continue to land with a runway length of only, say, 1300 metres instead of the current 1463 metres, nor does it provide any evidence to support the above statement. It seems that this option was not to be considered and therefore was not to be properly investigated. It was deemed by the airport, it’s advisors and the States as being out of the question – “not in the interests of the residents of Guernsey”.
How come ? The residents of Guernsey, or at least the taxpayers on the island, are footing the bill and if savings of £ 10 million or more can be found, it surely is in their interest. Likewise, the same people are paying for the Mott MacDonald report and thus have the right for all options to be fully investigated, and the States and the Airport management do not have the right to flippantly ignore one option that could save so much money.
The airport and the States have decided that Guernsey Airport has a runway length of 1463 and that is the minimum length it can be – even a shortening of 13 metres would save thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, of pounds, a shortening of 130 or 150 metres would save many millions !
I would suggest that shortening the runway by 150 metres or so would not have any noticeable effect on current aircraft operations and I think that the residents of Guernsey have the right to know all the facts.
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