£12m. capital spend paints a very expensive picture

For Alderney, and no doubt a strong cohort of deputies here who are often led by the heart when it comes to that island and who like to be seen every now and then handing out money in support, that will be an unwelcome distraction.

They will look to paint this as a straight fight between a logical choice of keeping the airport open, keeping the island connected and its economy alive, and some hare-brained idea of a ferry service instead.

That will be to miss the major point of the Policy & Resources amendment to the States’ Trading Supervisory Board’s report.

Because, yes, it does express disappointment that a ferry option was dismissed without the detailed examination that was after all promised – and let’s not forget that P&R itself is quick to throw things back and stop spending money on them if it seems like a waste.

But crucially, the amendment wants the final decision on whether to release the money bound up with the ongoing review of the 1948 agreement, which will examine just how much Guernsey and its taxpayers should be ploughing into Alderney and for what services.

There is scepticism that this really is all value for money.

The States finds itself yet again with reports coming out in the wrong order, decisions potentially being made that could end up being contradictory and with it wasteful unless a check is put in place.

Perhaps P&R is establishing a negotiating position here, because for all the fine and expected words of working collaboratively with Alderney on the 1948 review, the fact is that the two islands’ perspectives on what the future should be are different.

The overwhelming problem is that no one has established a vision for where Alderney will be in 20 years’ time, what kind of economy it will have, what the make-up of the population will be, what industry should thrive and therefore how it all needs to be supported.

That is not simple – and all jurisdictions struggle with that long-term idea.

But the time for making isolated decisions on spending on health, on education, on transport, for an island of 2,000 people is surely over.

The really difficult decisions are needed, not just a tickover of the status quo because that is more comfortable for all involved.

Alderney politicians clearly have confidence in their island and their ability to run a successful and thriving community.

There’s a radical side of me that would just pull the rug and set them off on a course of independence and self-reliance, unencumbered by the vagaries of an historic agreement and the whims of Guernsey politicians whose decision-making is driven by the success or otherwise of the Guernsey economy and Guernsey’s needs.

The spending on Alderney was barely an issue until the twin squeeze on finances of the need to bring in zero-10, thus rebalancing income and expenditure, and the financial crash.

That said, there were some, like the late Bill Bell, former Public Services minister, who were consistently troubled by the hundreds of thousands of pounds of losses being incurred by Alderney’s airport every year.

Those losses have only risen, and, once coupled with the losses incurred by Aurigny to keep servicing the air routes, are eye-watering.

A £12m. capital spend on top of that starts to paint a very expensive picture.

If that kind of largesse was being demonstrated in Guernsey, that kind of per capita spend on public services, there would rightly be uproar.

Alderney has also managed to practically bury the 2016 good governance report that was stark in its warnings that there needed to be a programme of change – thus following a pattern following other reports calling for reform.

Guernsey would be right to ask how value for money is guaranteed, how has that been demonstrated – and, if it is not, there must surely be a tipping point where the relationship needs to be redrawn and not just tinkered with. So nothing should be off the table – whether that is full-blown independence, the other extreme of the island simply becoming another district of Guernsey, or somewhere along that scale.

Should, for example, Alderney still have its own court system, a school, a hospital, and how much duplication is there in the civil service function and how much more sharing of resources with Guernsey could there be?

Perhaps the answer is improved transport links, a bigger runway with more capabilities, a regular ferry service – maybe then you can scale back the hospital services, for example, as a quid quo pro.

But that takes us back to the lack of a comprehensive vision and the urgency of getting that in place.

A decade ago many thought Alderney would be awash with income from tidal power operations, it was a golden goose that could have led to greater economic independence, but that has just not happened and it is clear that the community there is not welcoming of the infrastructure that would be required to maximise its impact, even if it did.

Alderney needs to clearly articulate where it is heading – and its population needs to both drive that and be on board with it.

But Guernsey also needs to be clear with its expectations, tying investment to real targets and goals, not just handing over pots of money because in isolation it feels like the right thing to do.