Guernsey States hopes insurance will cover Storm Ciarán costs

The States says it would have to cover the costs of any tree surgery work itself

Guernsey's States is hoping insurance will cover the cost of any significant storm damage to government properties.

The hospital and airport were among those damaged when violent storms hit the islands last week.

The States says it would have to cover the costs of any tree surgery work itself, but it was too soon to work out the total cost of Storm Ciarán.

Jason Moriarty, States of Guernsey chief operating officer, said: "Costs will be incurred for tree surgery work in support of our priority for clearing main roads as a means to help get the island back towards normality as soon as possible."

He continued: "There are likely to be some additional staff costs as we worked to ensure we had optimum staff numbers and resilience, across our responders and key support teams, during the major incident period.

"Any significant structural damage will likely be managed through insurance.

"At this stage it is too soon to provide any substantive costs."

The Guernsey College of Further Education has reopened to students.

The campus remained shut on Friday following the storm due to damage and flooding.

Jackie Hughes, executive principal of the institute said: "We certainly wouldn't want to postpone any more lessons.

The building is safe but a bit damp and uncomfortable in places.

"We were very lucky with the storm, it could have been a lot worse."