"Revive and thrive"

Tuesday 09 June 2020

The Bailiwick will aim to "build back better" with a plan to "revive and thrive" the economy while trying to keep some of the aspects of lockdown which many people have said they enjoyed.

Deputies Gavin St Pier and Heidi Soulsby have both received numerous emails from members of the public who have particularly enjoyed cycling while the roads were quieter than normal.

Deputy St Pier said during last Friday's press briefing that all of the island's deputies have received similar comments from their constituents with many people saying the roads "felt safer" and that they were more confident to walk or cycle during the lockdown.

He said that and other areas will be considered as the plan to 'revive and thrive' the economy is written in more detail.

Pictured: The Civil Contingencies Authority has led the Bailiwick's response to the covid crisis, but the whole community will have to work together on the post lockdown recovery. 

"Heidi and I have been receiving quite a lot of emails, as have all of our colleagues, in relation to cycling and cycling infrastructure and the roads, and what can be done to secure some of the benefits which people felt in terms of being able to safely use the roads, either for walking in or for cycling. So I think it is going to be incumbent on us as part of the recovery strategy, or recovery plans I should say, the action plans that will emerge from the high level strategy. But as I said, some of these things will require investment and it will require a commitment and a decision to provide money, because some of these things will not happen without funds being provided."

Deputy St Pier said he would be revealing more details on the multi faceted action plan to 'revive and thrive' the Bailiwick's economy as we continue to move out of lockdown, with information being released publicly this week.

He said he would have preferred to liaise with business and community leaders in more details before releasing those plans, but he said time is of the essence. 

"We will be publishing our high level recovery strategy under the working title of 'revive and thrive'. The overarching aim is to be economically better off than we would have been in three year's time without any action or intervention, and to achieve this we will need to be prepared to invest in recovery, and the funding that will need to come in due course, from borrowing further sums - and of course that will require further parliamentary scrutiny, debate and approval in due course. It is a high level strategy - and I must emphasise and stress that - covering several years and a lot of detail and nitty gritty will need to be developed later.

Pictured: As all schools have fully reopened, students and parents have been asked to choose 'active travel' to get there and home. Many have taken that on board. 

"It's a strategy for the Bailiwick, not just for government, and like the Covid-19 response itself, it will need buy in from the community as a whole. We will be engaging with business and the third sector, the charity sector, and others after the strategy is released.

"Frankly we would have preferred to do it before, but we've not done so simply because of the need for speed and the lack of time available to do so."

Deputy Soulsby agreed that the States will need to move quickly, especially if the islands want to 'build back better' off the back of the covid crisis.

"I think if we do, we've got to do it quickly. The longer we leave it, the less likely it will happen The way the States traditionally work has been so slow and pondersome, we have policy letters that take months to get there. I think we've got to follow up what's happened over the last few months and really embrace new ways of working to make it happen. Talk to the community, listen to the community. I'm hoping that the survey we publish (this) week will help to get that feedback about what the community wants to see for the future and whether it's revive and thrive or building back better. What it means, what we want to see and what's really benefitted us and all the horrible things people have had to put up with. But there have been some good things, and quieter roads, clearly, has come through loud and clear from a lot of people. And we really, we need to build on that right now, before it's too late."

Pictured top: Deputies Heidi Soulsby and Gavin St Pier.