Alderney Wildlife Trust ruffles feathers of bird observatory

When it was set up, the Alderney States spent £131,000 renovating the site, a former nunnery, to create a 10-person hostel and a two-bedroom apartment to offer accommodation to wildlife and heritage visitors.

Stories about a personality clash between the management committees of the Alderney Wildlife Trust and the observatory emerged just before Christmas.

Members of the trust subsequently received a letter from its president, Ian Carter, in which he accused the States of changing the Nunnery Field Centre Business Plan without consultation.

The trust claimed that the States and the observatory warden had publicly misrepresented the Nunnery Field Centre Project.

Mr Carter went on to say that the States had proposed to change the Nunnery lease to a licence with ‘related changes to the use of the site’.

The letter said that the trust would withdraw from the site on 1 March, but that it intended to meet its obligations regarding the Bird Observatory and data collection to the Bird Observatories’ Council and to the island by continuing to run the Alderney Bird Observatory.

It also made it clear that it would be dispensing with the services of the warden, who had become a States employee.

‘The AWT Board feel that they have responded positively and sympathetically to a wide range of challenges and demands placed upon it regarding to the ABO project over the last two years and have tolerated attitudes and approaches, which on reflection have gone beyond that which were reasonable…’

A meeting took place recently between people trying to set up a new administration to run an independent Alderney Bird Observatory and the board of the Alderney Wildlife Trust.

No comment was made by either party following the meeting.

States chief executive Andrew Muter said that it had been in talks with the Bird Observatory Committee about the need to ensure that a successful observatory continues to operate. ‘The two organisations are currently working together on proposals,’ he said.

‘We have also been in a positive dialogue with the Alderney Society about the importance of the Nunnery and future archaeological work and public access.’

Observatory committee member Tim Earl, who was involved in the negotiations to devolve the administration of the Observatory, said: ‘The AWT and the ABO are working together to strengthen the administration of the Bird Observatory and both are committed to its continuing success and the undoubted benefits that the Observatory has brought – and will continue to bring – to the island.

‘In the meantime, to protect our staff, we are making no further statement until the plans have been finalised.’