Alderney States member suspended for 30 days

A suspended Alderney States member said he would only apologise for disclosing information linked to a proposed data centre when more studies were carried out on its suitability for the island.

The States said Alex Snowdon had been suspended for 30 consecutive days, without pay, following a finding by the commissioner for standards that he failed to comply with previous code of conduct determinations.

He had been required to provide a written apology within seven days of receiving the commissioner's report, but did not.

Snowdon said risk, environmental and feasibility studies must be carried out before an apology, as well as postponing the tender.

"Instead, the commissioner removes me from office when the data centres expression of interests and tender process is just about to be submitted back to the States of Alderney," Snowdon said.

In August, the States member was suspended for three days after the parliamentary watchdog found he broke government rules.

The ruling related to an allegation he had told a member of the public a proposed data centre was "going into Mannez Quarry", when the decision had not been taken by the States and the project had been "at a confidential exploratory stage".

Snowdon said he remained "extremely concerned" about the data centre process, adding the code of conduct aimed to silence his "concerns and scrutiny".

"The commissioner has been made aware of these concerns on a number of occasions but continues to take no action. Instead, it would appear that there has been a continued failure to address concerns, resulting in potential bias," he said.

"This is about whether a project of this scale is being properly scrutinised, whether the people of Alderney are being given a meaningful opportunity to have their say and told all the information held by the States of Alderney such as the feasibility study, and whether the necessary environmental, financial and feasibility have been addressed."

Officials said the suspension applied only to Snowdon's role within the States of Alderney, adding the current law did not prevent Snowdon from attending meetings of the States of Deliberation in Guernsey in his role as a States of Alderney representative.

Follow BBC Guernsey on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.