Q. Are candidates in favour of a property tax, what effect will it have on the parishes?
A. The Treasury paper is written in analytical and academic language, but its purpose is to extract more money from us in tax. We pay enough already. Centralising tax will mean the Treasury Minister having power to set the rate imposing increases, replacing the present rate setting by parish meetings. I am favour of a windfall tax on gains from in rezoning of land, but opposed to a tax on property values, sounds like the feudal system.
Q. Do we have a tourism strategy if no, what would candidates like to see included?
A. No. We have neglected tourism and allowed it decline. I want to see a strong focus on event led tourism, environment, heritage, culture, sports, and arts. This requires support People come to Jersey for a purpose, with they decline in fixed attractions; we have to provide our visitors with events, with a reason to come to Jersey.
Q. What are the candidate’s views on Gigabit Jersey, the costs of this service and reports of problems from different upload and download speeds; and limited number of program coders in Jersey?
A. I am big fan of hi speed internet access and leave the technical issues to the engineers. It has opened up new business opportunities and creates employment, enables home working. I have fibre 50 Mb at home, it is excellent but too expensive, I don’t like data charges, and this could undermine the benefits. Education are making big efforts with teaching coding with the exciting Raspberry Pi project, I have two at home, they are cheap and accessible. This will draw young people in the world of computing science.
Q. What are the candidate’s views on the Planning system and the loss of an important urban development in Bath Street because of bureaucracy?
A. We have a big problem with our Planning system. I have raised this with the Planning Minister at every quarterly meeting of our Scrutiny Panel, and published concerns in our legacy report. Big urban regeneration developments require resilient planning frameworks ie. masterplans.. This needs strong political direction, which is presently absent. Without it, developers have to rely on officer advice, invest big money in their applications and then find the advice overturned. They have lost confidence. The planning processes are bureaucratic, expensive and inefficient. The POS review into the planning system commissioned by the Chief Minister is superficial and of little benefit. Sorting this is a priority for a new minister.
Q. Is there an end to the continual increase in public spending and States manpower?
A. There has to be an alternative. We have to set priorities and decide which services are essential for funding and which are less important. The States have tried spending reviews for decades without success. Our silo government works against it each silo protecting their departments spending, resisting change. In a past life I have sat at the civil service top table and seen this happen. We must protect front line services and reduce management layers and overheads which add no value
Q. Did the low turnout on the referendum result provide a mandate for option B?
A Ran out of time to answer. I would have said:
The low turnout was a factor in my decision to vote against. It was mainly the way the referendum was carried out and the complexity behind the questions, which confused many of the public. It took no account of views of many on island wide mandate. I was not active in either A or B campaigns and will accept the latest referendum result, which is rightly a simple yes/ no. If this had been done before all ambiguity over the result would have been removed.
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