Guernsey Press

Helicopter vision needs quick landing

AT FIRST sight it is hard to disagree with any of Economic Development’s ‘bold vision’.

Published

Better air and sea links, faster internet, more tourists, digital training, more economic diversity. It reads more like a mandate than a plan of action.

And at this stage that’s the problem. Much like the Policy & Resource plan it is pitched at such a helicopter height that the detail on the ground is invisible.

It will be months or even years before the island understands what are the implications, for example, of developing the eastern seaboard.

It could be an exciting large-scale development that the island can get behind. Equally, it could be a terrible mistake that turns the pretty harbour of St Peter Port into another St Helier. It is not so long ago that islanders marched against the Little Venice project in Belle Greve.

It is a reasonable suggestion worth investigating, but that is all it is.

Likewise, the plan to loosen the planning reins to create more commercial sites to boost the economy. It all comes down to the scale, position and number of sites. No one should be happy with giving developers carte blanche.

The committee president says this is a slow burn. Just because Guernsey Utd has a new manager no one should expect the island to start winning every game.

Anyone who has seen the States ‘in action’ over issues from waste to education knows that all too often we don’t even make it to the kick-off.

Economic Development admit that many of their ideas are in the hands of other committees. Some are already being examined by working parties.

Others, such as more parking in Town, seem in direct contradiction of the road their fellow States members are taking.

This helicopter is just as likely to crash as land.

Economic Development says its role is to set the direction of travel.

But just as important is the speed. Unless ED can inject a sense of urgency in this most infuriatingly slow-moving of Assemblies the scale of ambition displayed will look like hubris in years to come as the States struggles to manage anything more taxing than banning bonfires.