Guernsey States votes to force P&R to resign

One deputy said this assembly had been characterised by politicking

A motion of no confidence in Guernsey's Policy and Resources (P&R) Committee has been approved by politicians.

It means the committee members have been removed after a 23-16 vote, with one abstention.

The motion was lodged after P&R failed to get its plans for tax reform approved by States members.

An election will take place to appoint a new P&R president, with deputies Lyndon Trott and Peter Roffey the frontrunners.

Deputies Charles Parkinson and Rob Prow have also said they would stand for the role.

Deputy Peter Ferbrache, outgoing P&R president, said he "wasn't surprised" at the vote, but he was "disappointed".

His choice to replace him is Deputy Rob Prow.

A vote is set to take place after 14:30 GMT, after members have attended their Christmas lunch.

Former deputy chief minister Deputy Heidi Soulsby said in debate on the motion that "things can't carry on as they are", and there needed to be a reset of the top committee.

'Abuse of process'

At the start of the debate on the motion of no confidence on 24 November, deputies Mark Helyar and David Mahoney announced they would be resigning from P&R, but their resignations would need to be debated before taking effect.

Mr Helyar said "he wanted to resign months ago" but was persuaded to remain and added "were it not for the cost of a by-election" he would have resigned as a deputy altogether.

He labelled allegations of bullying by members of P&R, which were raised during debate, as an "abuse of process".

"In my view making generalised complaints about behaviour in the assembly are a breach of process and a disgraceful way to obviously and deliberately slur other members' reputations," he said.

President of the Development and Planning Authority (DPA) Deputy Victoria Oliver said it was "better the devil you know" and voted against the motion.

She added she felt this P&R had been hamstrung by States processes and that any change on P&R wouldn't make any difference to how the States operated.

DPA Vice-President Deputy Andy Taylor cited how P&R President Deputy Mr Ferbrache had acted after the DPA voted to list parts of the Castel Hospital.

He said the way P&R reacted was inappropriate and was evidence of how the committee had in his opinion treated others poorly.

Deputy Sue Aldwell voted to keep P&R in post and said: "P&R has been forward-thinking and so much more could have been achieved if they hadn't been blocked."

She said this assembly had been characterised by politicking and that while she had lost confidence in some of her colleagues she had not "lost faith in P&R".

Once a new president has been elected, they can nominate their choice of members - although, any member can be nominated as an alternative by two other politicians.

Follow BBC Guernsey on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook. Send your story ideas to [e-mail].