Guernsey told Jersey of its ferry decision two weeks ago

While both islands awaited an update from Jersey yesterday, the Economic Development Committee president said he had hoped the process would have already been agreed.

Guernsey told Jersey of its intentions on 17 October, he said. He had expected action, but there were hold-ups, most notably the recusal of the senior reporting officer from the process in Jersey.

‘That didn’t help, to be frank,’ said Deputy Inder. ‘I’m not party to Jersey’s process, Deputy Morel was going to take it to his Council of Ministers.

‘For whatever reason it hasn’t happened at their end and that’s not a criticism, but Jersey knew that this date was going to come.

‘We informed them that we had made a decision of what we were going to do.’

Jersey had said it was only aware of Guernsey's statement as it was released on Wednesday. There was nothing of significance emerging from Jersey yesterday as it sought more information from Brittany Ferries and rival bidder DFDS.

Deputy Kirsten Morel, the island’s minister for sustainable development, admitted that he was disappointed that there had been no joint decision but said that Jersey’s position was ‘absolutely the right decision’ for the island’s taxpayers.

He said he was ‘acting entirely with the best long-term interest of the island in mind’.

Deputy Inder said he agreed that a pan-island arrangement would be the best option for the islands, though both Guernsey and Jersey have now said they would be prepared to go their own ways.

He said that the States had not intended to ‘back Jersey into a corner’. His committee had made its decision based on the information presented.

‘It’s a decision we had to make, this wasn’t politicians sitting in a corner and colouring boats, these were substantial, quite heavy meetings over a 10-month period,’ he said.

‘It’s not about whether there’s intrigue in that process, what’s really important is that we’ve delivered security to jobs and assurances to the market.

'It’s a market stabilisation process if nothing else.’

He would not outline the details on why the Brittany Ferries tender had been selected.

‘All I can say is that, on balance, Brittany Ferries was the winner and the reality is, in a competition, there has to be a winner.’

The third bid from Irish Ferries ‘fell away’ and did not make it to the final stages, he said.

Deputy Inder added that he was ‘absolutely certain’ that the Condor name would disappear from local services over the next few months after more than 60 years in local waters.

‘Condor was an entity that was in some difficulty, which is part of the reason we went to this process,’ he said.

‘Brittany Ferries came in, bought in 51% and gave us stability in a new entity. There’s no conspiracy, they went in as Condor and came out as Brittany.’

Why can't the islands work together? page 16