One wonders why the Committee for Economic Development exists at all

The question has become very relevant because after some four years and £350,000 of expenditure, plus hours of civil service time, the Committee for Economic Development has published its long-awaited paper on the runway extension – which proposes to do nothing. While the paper supports an extension, the president has publicly said he does not. Also, Economic Development proposes to pass the buck to STSB, suggesting they look at it again five to 10 years’ time. What is even more surprising is that the president of STSB seemed to know nothing about this.

Since the 1970s there have been many studies into extending the runway and each one has concluded doing so would be very beneficial to Guernsey’s economy. It is therefore beyond belief that Economic Development proposes such a perverse course of action. Hence one wonders why the committee exists at all, especially since one of its members was quoted by this newspaper as saying that that his colleagues ‘lack the appetite’ for economic growth.

The paper concentrates on extending the runway to some 1,700 metres at a cost of £79m. This paper achieves 1,626 metres at a cost £79m. of which £57m. was already included in the airport master plan. Removing that already-planned expenditure reduces the price to around £22m. This is the actual cost of the engineering materials arrester system (EMAS) which can be installed within two years. Such a development would open our airport to carriers using the normal narrow-bodied aircraft used by most of today’s carriers. This will be of great benefit to Aurigny as they will be able to fly further with a full aircraft. Currently, the short runway restricts the weight of fuel they can take off with. Comments that we could be held to ransom by a commercial carrier is no different to what we have today where Guernsey passengers pay more than twice as much for a flight to Gatwick than our neighbours in Jersey.

The States has asked for ideas to fill the black hole and ED’s own policy report says that there is no other small investment which would bring such large financial return to the island in such a short time – yet the committee wants to ignore that inconvenient truth.

BJ Cash

Chairman, Guernsey Aviation

Action Group