Alderney businesses’ focus is on transport
Discussions over Alderney’s transport links were high on the agenda at a business engagement event designed to contribute to an economic development strategy for the island.
More than 25 businesses were represented at the two-hour meeting, which was co-hosted by the Economic Development Committee and the Chamber of Commerce.
EDC chairman Alex Snowdon was pleased at the turnout, adding that such a meeting had not taken place in Alderney for more than a decade.
‘We had businesses from the financial, hospitality and construction sectors there, as well as remote workers,’ he said.
‘Overall it was very positive, we discussed a number of things and got some interesting feedback.’
He said the issue of transport links was the ‘elephant in the room’, with a collective acknowledgement that the reliability of the island’s connectivity to the UK and Guernsey would have an impact on other principal aims.
One of these aims included increasing visibility of the States of Alderney’s Locate Alderney initiative, which aims to attract outsiders to live and work on the island.
‘We need certainty for the future, we talked a lot about the island’s demographics and job sector, as well as marketing and advertising initiatives in relation to Locate Alderney, but all of these depend on people actually being able to get to the island reliably,’ Mr Snowdon said.
He added that the importance of remote workers in relation to relocation was an unexpected talking point.
‘They’re important as you don’t see them often because they’re working from home, but they’re able to move a lot due to the nature of their work, so that’s worth thinking about in the context of an economic strategy.’
Other items on the agenda included addressing the lack of rental accommodation currently available on the island, as well as making changes to property tax laws.
‘With rental housing, banks aren’t lending to leasehold properties, so there was some discussion about converting those properties into real properties, as mortgage companies provide for those,’ Mr Snowdon said.
There was discussion about reducing the number of properties required to pay the property taxes and converting more units into residential properties.
He added that Chamber was keen to see greater pedestrianisation at the bottom of Victoria Street during the summer.
‘It would give the chance for people to walk around a bit more.’
He was hopeful that this meeting would be the catalyst for more regular discussions in future.
‘It’s about being island-smart and increasing awareness of Alderney as much as we can, if we can do something like this every six months that would be excellent. That’s how we can build momentum and a stronger economy.’
