His late and unexpected bid for the presidency of the Development & Planning Authority was successful when he defeated Jayne Ozanne by 22 votes to 15 today.
Leaders of the island’s planning committee have lost their seats at each of the past four general elections, but Deputy Inder told the Assembly he was ‘not worried’ about carrying responsibility or making tough or unpopular decisions.
‘I’ve got a fairly thick skin,’ he said.
‘I was the president of the committee which delivered a referendum and island-wide voting, which even the Assembly didn’t like, let alone the public. As president of Economic Development, I took on the Guernsey Hospitality Association every single day of the week. And I voted for GST.’
Deputy Inder came within 215 votes of losing his seat in the States in June’s general election and saw most of his closest allies lose theirs. The new Assembly had since left him without a seat on any active committee.
But Deputy John Gollop’s late withdrawal from the DPA contest opened a route for Deputy Inder to take over what he called ‘one of the most influential decision-making bodies in government’ and he delivered a well-crafted speech and a robust performance answering members’ questions.
He will now lead the authority’s flagship review of the Island Development Plan, which was agreed nine years ago, and a project directed late in the previous political term to simplify and speed up the process of amending planning policies and rules.
He pledged to provide strong political leadership of the island’s planning regime.
‘We’ve got some of the most complicated planning policies in the world,’ said Deputy Inder.
‘If the DPA doesn’t input any of its own policy from the elected members then there is no point having it. We might as well hand the whole lot over to planning inspectors and czars.
‘There is no point in five members just sitting there taking grief from the public all day long. If I can get the five members to agree that we want to start this or review that, there is no reason the elected members can’t remind officials and inspectors who the elected authority is, and tell them that’s what we’re going to do, assuming it’s got the support of the Assembly.’
He will not have the chance to put together his own committee and will instead inherit the four members elected to the DPA in June – Deputies Marc Laine, Sarah Hansmann Rouxel, Steve Williams and Lee Van Katwyk.
Candidates faced questions about heritage policies after the Guernsey Press recently interviewed property owners left frustrated by the authority’s demands to protect listed features of buildings with apparently limited historical value.
‘From what I’ve seen lately, two were listed at the point someone thought they were being sold and one was listed at the point when there might have been something that looked like development, and I don’t think that is acceptable, ‘ said Deputy Inder.
‘We need a policy. We don’t need arbitrary decisions of people picking up the paper and saying “oh, I haven’t seen that site, I better pop down and stamp a listing on it”. That is unacceptable and unfair on the people of Guernsey. I will get a grip on that.’
His proposer, Deputy Sasha Kazantseva-Miller, told the Assembly that the planning regime remained burdensome and too slow, and that reform needed to be led by an experienced politician.
Deputy Ozanne’s proposer was Deputy Yvonne Burford, who had been the authority’s president since July, before having to vacate the role following her election last month as a member of the Policy & Resources Committee.
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