DPA fails to resolve internal dispute after five-hour meeting
THE beleaguered Development & Planning Authority met for nearly five hours yesterday – but failed to sort out the chaos surrounding a botched attempt to replace its vice-president.
It said it would discuss the issue again in two weeks’ time.
That will be more than two months after president Victoria Oliver launched a bid – which has been unsuccessful so far – to oust her number two, Andrew Taylor, and replace him with John Dyke.
‘The Authority met and dealt with a very heavy agenda,’ said the DPA late yesterday.
‘While it has not yet reached a resolution on the ongoing matter of the role of vice-president, the Authority has agreed to hold an extraordinary meeting on 27 March to discuss this specific issue further.’
The DPA could not say whether it was confident of reaching agreement at that meeting with both Deputies Taylor and Dyke still claiming to be its legitimate vice-president.
In January, a majority of DPA members voted for Deputy Dyke, but legal advice cast doubt on whether the move to unseat Deputy Taylor was even allowed under States’ rules.
It is understood that officials of the States’ Assembly have refused to recognise Deputy Dyke as vice-president and the formal ‘blue book’ still lists Deputy Taylor as holding that role.
Another member of the DPA, Sasha Kazantseva-Miller, gave her backing to Deputy Taylor yesterday.
‘According to the blue book, the vice-president is Deputy Taylor, and that’s who I also recognise,’ said Deputy Kazantseva-Miller.
Deputy Taylor obtained legal advice again before yesterday’s meeting which strengthened his resolve to continue and bolstered his confidence that the committee acted inappropriately in trying to unseat him in the middle of a States’ term.
‘Ahead of this being discussed in committee, I sought renewed advice through the correct channels, and I’m hopeful that this can now be put to bed soon,’ said Deputy Taylor, following those discussions on Tuesday.
The States’ presiding officer, Bailiff Richard McMahon, was asked on Tuesday and yesterday who he recognised as the DPA’s vice-president, but he has not yet been able to reply.
The fifth member of the committee, Deputy Chris Blin, who is understood to have backed Deputy Dyke in the vote in January, has not responded to a request to comment which was made on Tuesday.
Earlier this week, the Guernsey Press revealed that immediately before the vote in January Deputy Oliver falsely told other members of the DPA there was an alleged precedent for a committee removing its vice-president mid-term.
She has since admitted that she ‘got the details wrong’.
They were then told the committee which oversees States’ rules – the States’ Assembly & Constitution Committee – had backed their right to replace their vice-president when in fact four of the five members of Sacc have not even considered the issue.
Sacc and the States’ senior committee, Policy & Resources, have urged the DPA to find a way to break their deadlock soon.
