Almost a quarter of Alderney’s population has given its views on shaping an Island Plan – there were 458 responses to a survey that closed for consultation last week.
Civil Servants are now collating the results which will be discussed by the Policy & Finance Committee (P&F) in December before going to the full States in January for open debate.
This is a month later than originally planned but the response has been such that civil servants need more time to collate and systematically analyse the results and the extremely large number of comments that were made.
“We are delighted with the level of involvement the Island has shown and it has exceeded our expectations,” said P&F Deputy Chair Ian Carter. “This amount of feedback requires due diligence in the way we process and present the information so we need more time.”
But he added: “We are hoping an executive summary will be available at next week’s P&F which will give an early indication of Islanders’ priorities but shaping the actual Plan will take a little more time than we originally anticipated.”
The survey, covering six key themes of the economy, energy, connectivity, community development, the environment and governance, went out to public consultation in mid-October and closed on November 8th.
Islanders including young people at school, students, parents, people of working age, businesses and older people were asked to help prioritise goals for a realistic and achievable plan for the coming years.
Among those goals for consideration were the introduction of clean and green energy, reducing energy costs, attracting business investment, increasing the resilience of air and sea transport, improving the diversity, health and wellbeing of the Island’s population, housing provision, developing community facilities, protecting natural habitats and heritage sites, and improving the efficiency, transparency and scrutiny of the Island’s government.
In addition to prioritising key projects listed by a Working Group of States Members, Islanders were also invited to submit their own ideas that could contribute to Alderney’s future prosperity.
