Deputies cannot turn backs on DPA

Not one deputy was willing to stand for the last position on the committee, leaving it short of its complement of five.

Granted, some deputies are busy. Some are prevented by the rules. Others have just left the DPA.

But for the whole Assembly to turn its back on a vacant position on an important committee is damning.

The writing was on the wall late last month when almost half the Assembly were so uninspired by the nomination of Dawn Tindall as authority president that they spoiled their voting papers.

No doubt over the next few days a deputy will be pressganged into standing. Probably someone who has no intention of running for deputy in 2020 or one for whom duty trumps self-interest.

For membership of the planning authority has never been a vote winner. As the Island Development Plan currently stands, the DPA is a poisoned chalice.

This will be especially true in an island-wide vote dominated by the thousands of voters in the urban parishes of St Peter Port, St Sampson’s and the Vale.

Those voters need convincing that the DPA is listening.

That it accepts that urgent and radical change is required, not a cosmetic nip and tuck.

The new president has so far been unconvincing on that front. For her, it is a failure to communicate the value of the IDP that is the main issue.

It is not.

Islanders understand the effects on their own doorsteps. They see plans for yet more development in areas where roads, schools and the environment are already under huge pressure. They see a deepening urban/rural divide.

A more radical shift is required. One that comes quicker than the promised review of November 2021.

Deputies outside the committee must recognise that. If they will not join the DPA and force genuine and lasting change from within then they must ensure it comes from without.