Alderney ‘will not give up lightly’ on air fares

‘They should resign after what they’ve done,’ he said yesterday, as the island goes to the polls today abuzz with news of air fare rises.

‘I just can’t believe it. This is a jackboot approach and I’m very disappointed. What they are trying to impose on Alderney will ruin the island.’

P&R described the call from Mr Roberts as ‘unusual’.

‘While we did not expect Alderney States members to be happy about this decision, a call for our committee to resign following a States direction is an unusual state of affairs, even by recent standards,’ the committee said in a statement.

As well as adding £5 each way to Alderney flights, P&R is proposing further rises in fares in the region of £25-£30 one-way from January, likely to be targeted at the island’s Southampton service. The aim is to address and plug a £600,000 overspend on the £2m. public service obligation subsidy which the island receives every year, and next year start to reduce it to £1.5m.

P&R pointed out that the Guernsey States directed it to review the Aurigny contract in December 2022 in order to reduce the subsidy paid on the Alderney routes – a proposal that was supported by both of Alderney’s representatives.

‘That is precisely what we have complied with,’ it said, although Alderney politicians are saying now that they believed the changes were linked to the island securing a new runway.

It also said that the move had not been made in response to the need to take cost out of the States Budget for 2025.

‘We made the decision before the Budget debate. The outcome of the Budget debate is therefore completely immaterial as even if the States had voted for a temporary increase in the personal rate of income tax, this reduction in subsidy would have still come into effect – because we are under a States resolution to make that happen.’

P&R said that Alderney residents received a subsidy of more than £5,000 per person per year above the amount paid via the island’s partial fiscal union.

‘By contrast Guernsey taxpayers do not receive any subsidy for flights they take. Alderney residents will continue to receive £1.5m per year to subsidise flights, in line with current States direction.’

Mr Roberts, one of the two Alderney representatives who sit in the Guernsey States, said P&R was blaming Alderney for a situation which was not of its making.

‘We used to have seven aircraft in Alderney. Now we have two. Alderney didn’t ask to buy Dorniers. Aurigny bought them, not us. It’s not worked and it’s cost a fortune. That was a mistake by the management of Aurigny and Guernsey States.’

He believed that the move would discourage businesses from investing in Alderney and it would lead to house prices falling.

The island is so unhappy it has contacted the UK Ministry of Justice and Mr Roberts said this could lead to a constitutional crisis.

‘Alderney will not give up lightly. It will be a constitutional crisis that will hit the UK broadsheets – a major constitutional crisis between two friends. I have many friends in the States of Guernsey but it appears not on P&R.’

He had considered calling for a vote of no confidence in the committee but felt that there was little point so late in the States’ term.

Mr Roberts is due to give an Alderney update to the States of Guernsey on Wednesday and then take questions. He said that he expected the subsidy issue would come up.