Community spirit praised by Constable

 
Counting the ballot papers at St James. Picture By Peter Frankland/Guernsey Press.

Vale parishioners have been thanked twice by Senior Constable Richard Leale for demonstrating their community spirit over the last few days.

He was referring to the turn out in Wednesday's referendum, which saw more than 2,200 turn out to cast their votes, and the strong response to this autumn's requirement to trim hedges and clean streams.

'The Constables and Douzeniers have completed their first check of the hedges and douits,' he said, 'and we'd like to thank the majority of property owners who have responded to what is a legal obligation in such a timely manner.

'Unfortunately, there are always a few who – for whatever reason – are slow to comply and they risk receiving a penalty notice when we do the next round of follow-up inspections next week.'

He urged anyone who had yet to clean their stream or cut their hedge to do so immediately.

On the referendum, Mr Leale said it was pleasing to see so many parishioners coming forward to cast their votes and the turnout in the parish had helped the plebiscite exceed the 40% threshold required to make it binding on the States.

'I'd also like to thank all those who helped to staff the polling station at the Vale Douzaine Rooms because without the voluntary help of Douzeniers and others, ballots like these would be much harder and more expensive to organise.'

He added that he had received a lot of positive feedback from parishioners supportive of the Douzaine for raising issues that were important to the Vale and publicising them on the website and its FaceBook page.