Mick Fooks: Parish and government link is broken

As we head, perhaps with an equal mixture of optimism and trepidation, towards June’s general election, candidates are sharpening their minds, or at least should be, about which issues they need to be across to be seen as relevant and proficient by voters.

Few will think immediately of the relationship between the States and the parishes. But from my years of experience in various roles on both sides of that divide, as it were, I’d like to suggest that it’s an issue deserving of some consideration before, during and immediately after the election period. Not least because the machinery of government is going to be subject to one of its periodic reviews, in some form or another, during the life of the next Assembly, and the relationship between the States and the parishes is not unimportant to that.

Clearly, electoral changes since the early 2000s have had an effect on the relationship. First, in 2004, douzaine representatives were lost from the Assembly. Then, since 2020, parishes, or collections of parishes known as electoral districts, have had no link with the Assembly through their own deputies. It’s almost unknown for countries, or even islands, not to divide their population into smaller units – regions, districts, constituencies, states – for each to elect their own representatives into the national parliament, and we’re still trying to understand the full consequences for voters and deputies of abandoning that orthodoxy in Guernsey.

There have been consequences at the level of parish administration as well. Some of those consequences may well have contributed to the failure to attract more candidates in the latest annual round of parochial elections. They may also have affected the role and status of the various bodies set up from time to time to oversee or assist relations between the States and the parish douzaines. I previously chaired one such body, the Guernsey Douzaine Council, which has languished in recent years because of crippling frustration at lack of progress, and is now probably past its sell-by date.

For some years, relations between the States and parishes have been subject to a charter – an agreement between them setting out how they aim to work together for the benefit of both and the public they exist to serve. The charter is rich in the language of partnership, consultation and sustainability. There have been various name changes in the bodies involved in relations between the States and the parishes, but it’s fair to say that each body has had a mixed relationship with the charter.

Today, the Douzaine Liaison Group is a sub-group of the Policy & Resources Committee. It is meant to keep States committees within the spirit of the charter, facilitate discussion about any major changes in the relationship between the States and the parishes, and generally encourage communication between committees and parish authorities.

One matter which was first raised more than five years ago, by the Douzaine Council as it happens, was rectories and the issue of ‘plurality’. After snail-paced talks, the issue has been put back and put back again. It remains to be seen whether the States will reach the item at its next meeting or indeed succumb to the apparently increasing temptation of kicking issues the other side of this year’s general election.

But in any event it is quite evident from the proposals put forward in the policy letter that they could have been progressed at significantly greater speed. There is nothing in it which could not have been said five years ago. The issues are unchanged – the perceived imbalance of funding and commitments facing parishes, which has particularly affected St Saviour’s for a number of years.

The feedback I have received is that meetings of the Douzaine Liaison Group are informative, with useful presentations made by committees and discussion involving politicians and civil servants, but invariably develop into a talking shop centred on particular delegates of the parishes.

If relations between the States and the parishes are to improve – not in the sense of becoming more harmonious, but in the sense of making things happen more efficiently and effectively – I believe a few principles need to be accepted.

First, there needs to be some drive from a person, probably a States member, with commitment to the cause as well as energy and the ability to know how to make things happen within government.

Second, there needs to be support from able staff. I was fortunate that the official involved with the link between the States and the douzaines/Douzaine Council was Dave Way. He was very aware of the role of the douzaines and, soon after I took over my role and with my support, he visited all but one of the douzaines at their monthly meeting. Douzaines should be grateful for the work undertaken by Dave during the introduction of emergency powers in response to the Covid pandemic, when he was the link between the law officers, the Douzaine Council and the constables.

Third, within the States Assembly there needs to be better understanding of the role and work of the parish authorities, and within the parishes there needs to be better understanding of how their relations with the States are overseen and managed.

I hope these principles will be considered among the issues facing next term’s machinery of government review and, before then, by at least a few of the candidates at this summer’s general election.