Alderney woman aiming to return to island’s States aged 97

If she does, she will become one of the oldest members of government in the world.

Mrs Hanbury retired from Alderney politics in 2001 after three years, including a spell as an island representative in the States of Guernsey.

She said she was driven to make a return over her concerns at the state of the island’s government, which she has previously raised at Chief Pleas sittings in 2020, 2022 and this year.

Her primary goal is to have proposals from the Good Governance Group debated. ‘I’ve urged them to put right our disintegrating governance process but nothing has happened,’ she said.

She said that in her opinion Alderney States is ‘ineffective, unwieldy and secretive’.

Mrs Hanbury moved to the island 40 years ago with her husband Peter after he retired from his career in the pharmaceutical industry. They had owned a property there for 10 years, letting it first to the island police and then to an islander.

Previously they lived in Singapore, Hong Kong, East Africa and Tehran before Mr Hanbury took up a job in Hertfordshire, and they lived there for 20 years.

It was after Mrs Hanbury’s most recent appearance at Chief Pleas that she was encouraged to try to do something about the situation from the inside and so she decided to seek re-election. ‘I’m only going to sit for a few months while I try to sort it out,’ she said.

She also wants to bring forward a review of the Land Use Plan.

‘I love Alderney but it’s in a bit of trouble at the moment and we’ve got to get out of it,’ she said.

Mrs Hanbury attended the hustings at the Island Hall on Tuesday, helped by her son.

One elector said the poor acoustics in the room made it hard for her to be heard, but the audience was ‘amazingly sympathetic’ towards her.