Alderney keen to find out how many people are living in island

ELECTRONIC data from the authorities in Guernsey should provide the information Alderney needs to assess its population, the Policy and Finance Committee chairman said.

John Beaman was commenting after a survey by Alderney's Chamber of Commerce showed that 96% of its members wanted a census.

Alderney normally conducts its survey in conjunction with Guernsey's, but Guernsey has decided to use electronic records at Social Security instead.

'We're given to understand that to do it on our own would be extremely expensive and that the information we need we could get from Social Security, the tax office, school records and so on,' said Mr Beaman.