Victoria Oliver

 
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Economy

This is the most important sector and we need more action and less words. In my professional career, ensuring value for money was ingrained in everything I did, I brought this with me to my deputy duties. Being a small island, we need to work harder to give you value for money. Yes, it is important to save, Covid-19 has shown us that, but we absolutely have to ensure that we are investing to build a stronger future so that the burden on taxpayers is reduced. We should be taking advantage of Brexit making Guernsey stand out to encourage business. Below are a few of my ideas as to how we can achieve this:-

 
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  • Welcome entrepreneurs with open arms, not put barriers in the way of attracting business. It is vital to ensure Guernsey remains attractive to investors while diversifying the economy.

  • Invest in a greener future, to protect Guernsey for future generations i.e Green Finance, Aviation and sustainability etc

  • Transparency on the spending process, we must spend our hard earn taxes efficiently and give the people of Guernsey access to see how their island is being run.

  • Proper, qualified management of our property portfolio.

  • Digital skills and connectivity are the foundations on which new economy will be built.

  •  Support small businesses to ensure a diverse economy and unemployment does not rise.

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  •  Clearing or fixing the abandoned greenhouses to revive the growing industry including Hemp, this requires a change in the IDP which can be done at the 6 year review.

  •  Only using consultants when necessary and ensuring those consultants are local, where possible.

  • All contracts, wherever possible, should be given to local companies to keep money on the island.

  • Better retention of our current skilled workforce. This could result in a change in the population management.

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  • The seafront enhancement could create many more jobs and diversify the economy, but making sure we do not ruin what we have.

  • We should be looking at developing better transport links, looking to direct flights to Europe rather than simply UK, therefore reducing the Air Passenger duty making flights cheaper for residents.

  • The high street needs help with the amount of vacant units, I believe most of this will come from market forces but as a Government we can help by rejuvenating Mill Street and surrounding areas. The Government is in Control of TRP!

 

 
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Health and Social care

This is a deep personal issue to me. Thanks to the incredible work of the nurses and some doctors, I am still alive and well. However, from my illness I saw many problems within the healthcare system and these have been fixed. Blood tests now all go on the same system so doctors will not miss any. The tracker system has had to be updated urgently so no lives were lost. Although I would not wish that anyone has to go through what I went through, much good has come of it.

COVID19 has taught us the value of our Doctors and Nurses. I want to ease travel restrictions when is it safe to do so. I would like to see the nurses wage review finalised to encourage nurses to come in the industry and to remain on island, at the moment we are wasting money on agency staff. It is not fair when a States administrator gets paid more than a nurse, yet nurses save lives.

Mental Health help is vitally important and needs to work as a multi agency team more so now than ever, as these are our most vulnerable people. The partnership of purpose should really promote prevention. We need more trained mental health practitioners to help with the demand. I feel, as do many people on the Island, that Mental health is not taken seriously enough until it becomes a big problem then can be left too long to sort, so patients are put straight in to Oberlands rather than trying to sort the issues before this, reducing the stress and anxiety. We need to respect people and try to prevent this. i.e People can have anorexia but not be “light enough” for treatment, this does need sorting.

If I am voted in, I will ensure that the disability legislation is completed. This is important to so many of our islanders.

I would like to see medicinal cannabis available.

Long Term Care With our population demographic, we must plan for the future and I will continue to fight to ensure our parents and grandparents (our pensioners) get a fair income, good health and social care and are not forced to sell their homes for their long term care.

I would like to see closer working of social care and community care. This could prevent time spent in hospital. Basically we need more social care beds so can place people from hospital.

 

 

 
 
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EDUCATION

I have 3 girls and naturally want them to have the best education. We need a strong system in place to allow every child to reach their potential without spending vast sums. I was in favour of selection and fought hard for this to remain, I do regret the decision the States made. However it has been made, twice now!, and feel there is no point in returning to this issue. We live in a democracy, the majority have spoken and we need to move on. Theoretically, the 2 School model might be cost effective but I don’t feel its right for Guernsey. The pause and review will help design Guernsey’s secondary system from the ground up. My beliefs on this subject are:-

  • A good teacher can do more for children than any new building

  • We need to stop wasting vast sums of money talking about it and actually invest in our children’s future

  • Adopt a system where the highest achievers, healthiest & happiest children are

  • we must have smaller class sizes

  • We need to forget buildings and look at educational outcomes

  • I would be happy with three schools and one 6th form, but feel three 11-18 schools would probably be better.

Further investment for College of Further Education (College of FE) is needed and I am excited about the redevelopment, though it has taken along time. The future skills are in need throughout your life and we need to continue offering our school leavers the opportunity to access academic and vocational courses. I believe that a re-skilled workforce can achieve their goals and aspirations during their life and look to maintain more of our school leavers on island. Unlike years ago, most people will have a number of careers during their life and the College of FE needs to be able to adapt to these changes, whilst building a strong employment potential within Guernsey, therefore we:

  • should continue with the redevelopment of the College of FE

  • need to give people the opportunity and allow them to reach their full potential, including changing careers

  • Guernsey depends on the skills and knowledge of our people and the contribution that each of us make to the Island’s economic success.

I am a strong believer that if you put in the correct foundations, building upon becomes much easier. The 15 hours free nursery places, in my opinion, is very successful and needs to continue as it is promoting equal opportunity.

 

 

 
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Environment

We need to invest in a greener future. The Environment should be working for and with the people of Guernsey, not against them but protecting future generations. The Nature Study which has been approved by the States has now also been adopted by the planning Authority, which I was apart of, however this needs funding.

 
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The recent climate change policy letter now needs to be put into action. Although on some of the propositions, I reserve my judgement on the basis of cost. Though I do believe that those to do with air quality just need to be implemented to prevent health issues and is the right thing to do.

Protect the green spaces and heritage

Invest in green finance

Scrap single use bottles

Create more drinking fountains. Island Games will be building some of these. Paris saves over 2 million single use bottles per year by having drinking fountains including sparkling water

When a tree is felled somewhere it should be replaced by another indigenous one.

Subsidy on electric bikes has boosted the amount of people not using their cars for short journeys and I'd like to see this extended to help achieve air pollution targets.

Pursue electrical aviation as this could also help the economy and transport links within the Channel Island while better for the environment.

Housing and Development

I believe that the States should look to improve the process of buying and selling. The current system for purchasing is outdated and costly. The Housing review report indicated that Guernsey was the most expensive place in charges within the Channel Island and UK. Also pushing for support for First Time Buyers

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As Vice President of Development and Planning Authority this is where I have excelled and saved money. After 4 years I have finally got the Committee and planners to agree to enhance fast track decisions. This means that the waiting time will reduce. The minute taking is now reordered, saving officers at least 3 days work, every meeting. I voted on several amendments, which now need to be implemented. Being Vice President of Development and Planning and with my extensive professional experience, I believe we can make the IDP easier to change. We were meant to review it but this got pushed back because of COVID. This does need actioning as soon as possible.

 
 

 

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Justice

Being a member of the Home Affairs Committee, there have been a number of big issues that we have resolved this term while keeping the island safe and secure. These are just a few

  • Bexit has been a colossal amount of work

  • We have progressed all the recommendations from the HMIC report, although some of the operational details do need finishing.

  • The sexual offences legislation is now up to date

  • We stopped an unnecessary double fence going up at the prison, saving the tax payers millions

  • Resolved the issues with JESSC, especially the coastguard and getting to costs under control, while securing staff retention.

  • Updated many of the security systems

  • Actually started the justice review policy

However there is still a long way to go and in my opinion we must deliver the review of the justice policy which has 43 recommendations that does not mean we have to adopt them all, some of the ones I believe we should make a priority next term:-

  • The Police complaints procedure needs reviewing. The Police Complaint Commission have said it’s outdated and needs changing.

  • Criminal sentencing needs addressing, as there are now more tools in the box for judges to use and the parameters need to be reviewed and fairly set to avoid the perception of unfair custodial sentences, for example someone arrested with a small amount of cannabis, verses a drunk driver

  • Need the family process to be fair but the future should apply to both family and criminal system.

  • Should not be sending our children off to jersey if sexually assaulted to be examined, as this is another trauma in itself.

  • People should not be getting arrested for small amounts of Cannabis as can put them on a road that is not beneficial. Health and social care are looking at the drug and providing evidence for the deputies vote. We spend vast sums trying to prevent the importation and consumption, I think its time we look at this from a different angle. Overall I agree with the decriminalisation of Cannabis but would have to be regulated with stronger controls than alcohol.

  • Seriously need Algilisys to update the IT system for Home Affairs, especially for the police. We still have a police person to walk a file to court because the computers don’t talk to each other.

  • Trading Standards has a small piece of legislation that would make a big difference to the running of our island making it a safer place.

Government

Everyone always says they want an an open and transparent Government, but I have really tried this term and have have made some progress. All Development & Planning Authority meetings are now recorded, which is a step in the right direction as these recordings could be made available if the parishioners wanted to listen. My views on having a more open and effective government are:

  • All committee meetings should be digitally recorded & available publicly

  • Deputies should be limited on the amount of time they speak in the chambers 

  • Bring the States into the 21st Century while ensuring efficiency and effectiveness. 

 

 

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Contact

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