Deputies ban ormering at night but IT failures delay key runway debate

Friday 25 November 2022

IT failures disrupted proceedings in the States' Assembly on Friday morning.

Deputies and officials who usually rely on the internet to access their papers for Assembly meetings were left in the dark as the States' website was unavailable throughout the morning's debate.

The Assembly backed a proposal from the Bailiff, Richard McMahon, to defer a key debate on proposals to spend £24million developing Alderney's airport because many States' members could not access a late proposition by one deputy to change the proposals.

The IT failures also affected the Assembly's new electronic voting system, which required several recorded votes to be held by members calling out their votes.

Pictured: The States' Assembly should have started debate on proposals for a multimillion pound development of Alderney airport, but the item had to be deferred as a result of the States' IT system going down. 

Some deputies acknowledged in their speeches that they were speaking on proposals and voting on propositions which they could not access and were therefore relying on their memory of papers read in recent weeks.

Nevertheless, the States continued their meeting without adjourning, considering less far-reaching items than Alderney's airport.

Items debated included legislation relating to the collection of ormers and the future of public notices in the local media or elsewhere. 

States' members supported proposals from the Committee for Economic Development to make it illegal to gather ormers at night.

Pictured: The States managed to get through some of their planned business this morning, including backing a proposal from the Committee for Economic Development to ban ormering at night.