Deputies should defer plans until after the election

YOU STATED in your email to me on 6 August last, regarding the proposed new school, ‘there is very limited appetite in or outside the Assembly to revisit (again) or reverse this decision’. Whether this is still the case in the Assembly with deputies, in many cases, wishing to be re-elected, I am not so sure.

Suffice to say, outside the Assembly there has never been an appetite for one large school on two sites. One only needs to review the media and to speak to the general public at large to know that this is the case.

I know that certain of the States deputies have their own agendas, and many members ignore the wishes of the very people who elected them. If the States acted in deference to the public who elected them, they would have held a referendum on the proposed schooling model, or at least delayed the implementation of plans until after this summer’s election.

If the current States deputies wish to show their integrity and desire to serve the people, they will at least defer any further plans until after the election.

If they don’t, the election will possibly be driven by one outcome, as has previously been mentioned at a public meeting, and unlike the recent UK election the focus will not be on Brexit but education. Suffice to say, we may see the existing deputies, in many cases, possibly being trounced.

I would also refer to our exchange of correspondence courtesy of the Guernsey Press last May. My letter published on 10 May was responded to by your letter on 21 May. Your response was headed, States has no need to borrow and pay back. Yet shortly thereafter, you publicly announced that taxes will have to rise to meet future commitments. If we were not to spend very substantial sums on the proposed new school(s), this would mitigate the need for tax increases. As has been stated by people far more knowledgeable than myself, this island is no longer as competitive as other jurisdictions. What will the future hold if we are unable to attract new business, let alone the staff required to operate them?

JOHN PETERS

Address withheld.