New faces in St Peter Port parish douzaine

Newly-elected constable Ken Acott shared his view that younger people need to be brought on board and said he was also hoping to put his management experience to good use.

Along with Joyce Tonkinson, Mrs McCutcheon is one of two new faces in the douzaine, with one of the other six seats going to a returning member, Odette Duerden.

Barry Cash, Di Mitchell and Phil Smith all kept their seats, while sitting douzeniers Tom Moore and long-standing Rosie Henderson were not returned.

Mrs McCutcheon had told parishioners at the early November meeting that she wanted to make more of the parish’s website and social media.

‘There’s certainly a high expectation that I’ll be sorting that out,’ she said.

‘I can picture the ways to do it and how to get people more involved.’

Her job as administrative secretary to the Lt-Governor has brought her into contact with young people through the Lt-Governors’ Cadets and the Youth Commission, and she hoped these contacts would be helpful to her.

Mr Acott beat Chris Nicolle in the constables’ election and said his experience of founding and running First Central Insurance would be useful.

‘We always treated the staff well and empowered the staff and that’s what I want to do,’ he said.

Senior constable Di Mitchell had already made some ‘tremendous changes’, he said, and he looked forward to discussing his ideas with her and hopefully taking them to the douzaine.

‘I want to make the douzaine relevant to the parish. We need to be more visible and people need to understand what we do.’

‘It was a really good election,’ said Mrs Mitchell.

‘The people behind the scenes who make everything happen don’t often get appreciation, but it was all tickety-boo.’

The turnout for both elections was about 3.7% which Mrs Mitchell said was low, but that she was optimistic that it could improve.

‘It will get better as we publish our plan [for the parish] and we start working around the Town and with parishioners.’

Vice-dean Mary McDermott, returning officer for the constables’ election, thanked the Frossard House election team and her fellow douzeniers and volunteers for their support.

n Just fewer than 300 votes were cast for the elections. Mr Acott won the seat, with 164 votes to Chris Nicolle’s 87.

There were eight candidates for six douzaine seats. Rachael McCutcheon topped the poll with 179 votes, followed by Odette Duerden with 174, Barry Cash with 124, Joyce Tonkinson with 118, Di Mitchell with 110 and Phil Smith with 94.

Rosie Henderson, with 88 votes, and Tom Moore, with 76, missed out.