And the president of the States Trading Supervisory Board hopes to ‘crack on’ with the work before the end of the year.
The airport project has been blighted by political delays and disagreements on the scale of the works required, and escalating costs.
Guernsey States’ approval of a runway and airport rebuild was scrapped after tenders for the work came in at £36m., leaving only runway rehabilitation on the table.
Speaking during an interview on Alderney station Riduna Radio, Deputy Mark Helyar said that since becoming president of STSB he was in a ‘position to know much more about what’s been going on or what, or rather, what’s not been going on.’
He said he had seen a draft of Policy & Resources policy letter in which costs looked ‘quite alarming’.
‘But I don’t expect the ultimate figure to be anywhere near what’s in the policy letter. So what we’re hoping is that P&R will be delegated the responsibility for doling out the money, and for STSB just be told to crack on.
‘And that’s what we intend to do to get the work done as quickly as possible.’
He added that he hoped that work could start by the end of the year. Delays in making progress had also been complicated by Alderney’s participation in the soon-to-be-established Bailiwick Commission.
‘I’m not going to be critical of anybody, because that’s a political decision, but much more focus seems to have gone into making preparations for the Bailiwick Commission than fixing the runway. The two things were linked together in an amendment,’ he said.
‘Credit the current P&R, they have acknowledged publicly that the loss of connectivity that’s represented by the runway would be a catastrophic community issue, and therefore one of a significant cost.’
In a wide-ranging interview, Deputy Helyar was also asked on whether he continued to support the introduction of a goods and services tax across the islands.
He replied that he had heard worrying things about the updated proposals for what was known as ‘GST-plus’, the package approved by the States in 2024.
‘In terms of the consultation that’s being discussed, some of the “plus” might not be there – in terms of the ways in which you can help people like restructuring Social Security,’ he said.
‘I think you might find that GST is being applied to things that we didn’t intend it to be applied to. From my understanding of the consultation, it’s to be on absolutely everything from school fees to electricity bills.
'And that’s not what was originally intended.’
He added that there needed to be a rethink on government expenditure and he would be submitting an amendment to the Government Work Plan.
‘I don’t think we’ve done enough to revise our constitutional system to ensure that we are in control of spending,’ he said.
‘The Government Work Plan debate is about setting government priorities, and there is nothing in there at the moment about what we need to do to construct a government and an executive system where somebody can say no.’
‘I think we need to make sure that the people that work for us understand that there is only a finite amount of money, and that government can only sustainably reach a certain size in a small jurisdiction.
‘I just don’t think we’re doing that. I do sometimes feel like we’re not we’re not driving the bus. We’re sat in the back and looking out of the window.’
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