Alderney people to have their say on Fab Link cable

The issue has been divisive and with the parties behind the Fab project anxious for a final decision on whether its route from Britain to France will include Alderney, the Policy & Finance Committee decided to ask the public what it wanted.

The Fab cable will carry electricity from the Cotentin peninsula to Devon.

Fab Link is part-owned by Alderney Renewable Energy. It wants to cross Alderney so that when tidal energy is eventually harnessed, it has a route to markets in the UK and Europe.

Fab is believed to have offered the States of Alderney between £250,000 and £500,000 in exchange for leave to route cables, entering at Longis Beach and leaving at Corblets.

Alderney does not have the mechanism for a referendum within its legislature so the consultation will follow the same lines as the plebiscite used to help elect the two Alderney representatives to the States of Guernsey every four years. The public cast votes for members nominated for the role, before a States vote. By tradition, even though they have no formal requirement to do so, their votes echo the outcome of the plebiscite.

Policy & Finance chairman James Dent said: 'As everybody knows, we've been talking to Fab Link Ltd.

'If and when a final offer is confirmed, we believe there is the need for some sort of public consultation and we think, the majority of P&F members really think, this consultation should be in the form of a plebiscite as a fair way forward.'

The States is being advised by the Law Officers on how to word the document.

'It would be a very brave States member who, having agreed to the process, decided to go against the result,' said Mr Dent.