St Peter Port officials listen to what parishioners want
PRIORITIES of parishioners were collected by St Peter Port constables at a parish drop-in on Saturday.
Douzenier Mary McDermott organised the session to help plan a schedule for this year.
Douzenier and constable Zoe Lihou and douzenier Odette Duerden were on hand to speak to the public about their concerns.
‘People often don’t know the extent of what the douzaine does, so I have gone through and looked at the main categories to show what we are doing,’ said Mrs McDermott.
‘Our last drop-in was in December which looked at new ideas to bring into the new year, so this was the next step.’
Categories of the douzaine’s responsibilities were made into posters for parishioners to tick their priorities.
‘Zoe’s had a lot of emails from people who can’t come in today, and we looked at comments online to include what people want us to do.
‘Any additional comments which don’t fit these categories can be put on a sticky note.’
A mid-year review will be held to assess progress.
‘We can only react to what the community brings in, we want our time as elected officials to be meaningful.’
Several parishioners had popped by within the first half-hour.
‘Traffic and the noise from cars was raised and aggressive driving for pedestrians. There were other things too, like people feeding pigeons in Town, and people drinking in bus shelters when it’s raining so passengers can’t get in.
‘When people come in to tell us these things, we can make a decision based on their suggestions.’
Drop-ins have run for at least two years.
‘Next on our schedule is inviting community groups in to see how we can support people in appropriate ways.’
Groups such as Liberate and the Guernsey Disability Alliance will be invited to give feedback.
‘We are trying to increase registrations on the electoral roll to improve engagement with parishioners, and improve diversification. We need to get opinions from the parish, but some issues are States issues.'
Training is taking place to promote engagement between parish officials, and to be up to date with data protection laws.
A douzaine liaison group meeting is being held in late January with States members and the douzaines, to facilitate communication between States committees and parish authorities.
