St Peter Port douzaine faces legal challenge to its remede

The constables’ application to the Royal Court to get the remede passed was blocked after a parish douzenier objected.

Rosie Henderson argued that the meeting at which the constables and douzaine had approved the rates was unlawful and that they had not followed other parishes by cutting costs to help those in financial hardship.

The constables were seeking to levy £734,268 by way of occupiers rate plus £625,696 for refuse collection.

Deputy Bailiff Jessica Roland adjourned the hearing and said the matter would now have to go before a full sitting of the Royal Court.

Counsel for the constables, Advocate Sarah Millar, said the matter needed to be resolved quickly as her clients would run out of money very shortly.

In a letter to the Royal Court, Mrs Henderson showed ways in which she believed almost £200,000 could be cut from the remede as proposed. These included delaying rebuilding work on walls at Candie Cemetery for 12 months [£80,035], cutting £55,000 from the cost of floral displays and reducing the cost of parish administration.

‘This is a time of change and unforeseen trouble,’ she said in her letter. ‘We should, I think, take our responsibility seriously and do our utmost for the people of the parish. It is a time of difficult decisions, let us please put our duty first.’

Public parish meetings could not be held this year. Under the Emergency Powers (Coronavirus) legislation, constables and douzaines could make decisions for themselves providing the draft remede was publicised and parishioners given the chance to comment.

The publication was in La Gazette Officielle on 15 May after which people were given until 26 May to make representations. Parish constable Dennis Le Moignan said no submissions from the public had been received. Subsequently the constables and douzaine approved the remede by 17 votes to three.

Mrs Henderson told the court that the meeting had been unlawful as no discussion had taken place.

Ms Roland said that communication could be done electronically and providing a person could hear or read what was being said and have the chance to respond they were deemed to be present. It did not need to be done verbally.

Mrs Henderson said when she had questioned this with the Law Officers, she had not considered the answer she got to be ambiguous.

On the point of the parish needing the money quickly, she said somebody had told her that each douzaine carried an emergency fund sufficient to cover for three months and that some parishes had already used some of theirs to cover lowered rates. There should be £240,000 sitting somewhere.

Ms Roland said that she could see by the way that heads were being shaken [by constable Jenny Tasker] that this appeared to be disputed.

It was important to resolve the matter quickly and a hearing would be needed with at least seven jurats. The parties were given until 4pm on Tuesday to submit any further submissions in writing. It is hoped that the hearing could take place at the end of the week or early the week after.