Parish waste requete, if successful, gives options

Briefly, the purpose of our requete recently published is simply to give the douzaine of each of our parishes more flexibility in dealing with parish waste. At present the parochial Collection of Waste (Guernsey) Law 2015 makes each parish responsible for:

n the regular collection of waste from dwelling houses and lodging houses; and

n transferring it to waste disposal sites specified by the Waste Disposal Authority.

Thus, effectively, the WDA has a monopoly control of the disposal of all domestic waste on the island as, no doubt, was the intent at the time. Our proposition is designed simply to free up the market by allowing the parishes to make other arrangements if they choose to do so. Some may at some point decide to do so. Others may not. There is no compulsion.

Our requete, if successful, really changes nothing immediately apart from to give options. I could end this letter here.

However, I should carry on to explain that, obviously, something prompted this and that is a proposal from a local business to offer a service to dispose of food waste on island using what appears to be a very cost effective and eco-friendly technique that could, if scaled up, allow food waste to be disposed of at no cost to the taxpayer with a possible contribution towards parish collection costs. As I understand it the technique involves using larvae to digest the waste and produce a valuable compost to use on island. At present food waste is packaged up at Longue Hougue and shipped to the UK.

This may or may not pan out in the long term. If it does, we may save money and help the environment with an extremely low carbon, sustainable process. In addition, a new, local business will have been created. If not, nothing is lost.

In terms of consultation with the parishes, this is ongoing. We have spoken to some and will be giving the rest an opportunity to discuss this. One particular point in response to Deputy Roffey’s claim that we have not consulted his committee, STSB, this is simply not true. I reached out to him but it is clear that he will likely oppose our plan. I do think that this tendency to drag power to the centre is not in the best interests of Guernsey taxpayers. We are already seeing rising waste disposal charges, along with rising prices for everything else. Anything that could reduce these costs should be explored and not resisted. Our people are besieged by rising costs.

We in government should do everything possible to mitigate this.

Good governance by the States should involve looking at every possible angle to cut costs to the States, the parishes and taxpayers to allow tax rises and government fees (these being taxes by another name in many cases) to be kept to a minimum.

The point at issue here is not earth-shattering but governance requires hundreds of these decisions which we need to get right across the piste if we are to keep taxes and fees under control. If I may misquote former President Bush, we must keep Guernsey moving forward for a better Guernsey with a thousand points of light.

In Guernsey, being a small jurisdiction, some government monopolies are inevitable but, where possible, it is best to explore other delivery channels. Clearly not all our government monopolies give us an optimal outcome – as our boat owners are discovering to their cost with the Harbours Authority.

Deputy John F Dyke

John.dyke@deputies.gov.gg