Public utilities appear to be given free rein to disrupt people’s lives
‘CONSTABLES furious, etc’ in the Guernsey Press of 9 April. I, and no doubt many other residents, were not surprised to read of their anger though whether it was because they were not told in advance about the long-term High Street electrical works, or they realised the monumental stupidity of digging up one of the island’s tourist meccas right at the start of, and well into, tourist season was not immediately clear. And on the same day as the first cruise ship arrived.
It is the latest example of the free rein public utilities and large corporations providing public services in Guernsey seem to be given to disrupt ordinary people’s lives. Do the public servants who allow these things to happen never think before applying their rubber stamps?
Many of us are aware that much of the island’s electrical cabling goes back to the 1940s and do not doubt that it is an urgent matter to do something about it, but so it no doubt was through the 1990s, the noughties, and the 2010s. If Guernsey Electricity was finally going to act, why could it not wait until the end of school summer holidays in September, 2023? Simple question.
What really disturbs me though is it is another example of the lack of co-ordination in thought as well as action in the way the island’s public services are run. On the one hand you have the tourism people talking of visions for the future against a background of declining visitor numbers, on another you have politicians going on about encouraging business including retail, and then you have this shambles.
Never mind. Get those tourists to rent a car and hit the open road out of Town. Oops, I forgot. They can’t – it’s being dug up.
STUART GARNER
Jerbourg