09/12/2011 BBC Channel Islands News

Hello and welcome. A safe place to live or a crime

ridden island? The Guernsey public have their say on community safety.

Plus as many of us get into debt to pay for Christmas, lessons for the

young to avoid the financial pitfalls.

And how the memory of a friend is spurring these people on to walk 44

People in Guernsey want to see more police on the streets. That is

according to findings from Community Safety Survey. Drugs,

being attacked and burglary were other issues that people felt were

problems for the island. But some people feel that perception and

reality do not always go hand in hand.

Drugs, the root of all evil? Most people in Guernsey thinks so. The

latest findings from the Community Safety Survey reveal that people

are using, dealing or importing drugs, are considered to be the

biggest problem on the island. But people's perceptions are not

necessarily indicative of the true crime rate. The fact that drugs are

also commonly considered to be among the community could be a

concern to the authorities. There is a drug problem on the island and

we have to address it. But I do not think it is as bad as other crimes.

The crime I have concerned about is the crime of domestic abuse in

Guernsey. That can really harm families, individuals. When you

look back over the last 10 years, though very serious crimes have

happened in domestic situations. When it comes to the problems that

the public feels our most To tackle these kind of problems

the majority of respondents said they wanted to see more police on

the beat. Policing is not just about visibility, there are many

occasions where we do not want to be visible in the way that we

tackle criminality. That is an important message. Many elements of

policing are invisible but they are equally important. We should not

just get focused on a simplistic view that if you throw money at

policing and have lots of neighbour were policing officers, everything

will be all right. It is not. some issues were highlighted as a

cause for concern, the majority of people said that when it came to

community safety, they were not very worried at all were not

worried at all about anything. is a fantastic place to live. What

we need to do is small isolated incidents, we should not allow them

to be blown out of proportion. Perception and reality can

sometimes be two very different things. At a time when some of the

public feels threatened and the a authorities maintain that Guernsey

is one of the safest places to live, there is no time to be complacent.

Jersey's former chief minister believes that the number of states

members could be reduced significantly. Terry Le Sueur has

called for a smaller government with fewer Constable's or diabetes,

but more politicians elected on an island wide mandate.

In a state you need both people with an island wide mandate and

people with a parish mandate. I think the emphasis increasingly is

on the island wide mandate, so my suggestion was to increase the

number of senators, rather than decrease them.

After four years, covered in scaffolding, work to repair the St

James's Church in St Helier will start early next year. Varied that

-- there is proposals have been decline since 2007. Work is

expected to be completed by next summer. There are plans to sell the

La Motte Centre to pay for the building work and move the youth

club to St James's. An increase in the number of people

in Guernsey needing help with debt is expected in the new year. The

Citizen's Advice Bureaux says it is likely to get more inquiries after

Christmas due to the current economic crisis. Various

initiatives are under way to try to prevent people from getting into

debt in the first place. This may look like a typical

classroom scene, but Catherine is not a teacher. In fact, she is a

debt adviser. And for the past few months she has been going to

schools in Guernsey to talk finances. The idea is that young

people should learn about budgeting early on and therefore avoid

getting into trouble later. It is an important live scale and at the

earlier that and people think about managing money, the better. When

they go out into employment and university, they will have to

manage their own money. The lessons may have proved a success with the

school, there are more planned in future, but what do the pupils

think? It is very useful. You do not understand how much work goes

into you Piet -- your parents paying for a holiday. I will not

buy things over the top that I do not need. It is very important

because if you learn very young, you will remember when you are

older. If you start saving now, you'll have money for later and the

things you want to buy. We all have lessons to learn in life, but

staying out of debt is hope for the one that these teenagers will have

mastered. You are watching the BBC and the

Channel Islands. Later in Spotlight, how one a lady is still celebrating

Christmas with her 1960s fairy Now, do you fancy walking 44 miles

this weekend? A group of determined people will be doing exactly that

to raise money and awareness of skin cancer. For the 10th year, a

group of walkers will pound the island's path and roads in memory

Walking the for hope, and battling for wintry weather. But for these

islanders that is not stopping them. They have a very special reason for

doing this. It is something that is very close to all of their hearts.

Peter contracted melanoma and he died of skin cancer. He died within

about six months of contracting it. He was just a very good man. He was

great with kids and he loved my children. We are doing in his

memory. He liked walking and he would have liked to have done

something like this. We would talk about this kind of thing over a

couple of beers on Friday nights and I felt that we should do in his

memory. The crispers walk is now in its 10th year and has increased in

popularity since its humble beginnings. -- the Christmas walk.

The it has come a long way in terms of participation. We had nine the

first year and it has built up and after about four or five years we

had over 100 people doing it. This year we have around 185 people

taking part in total. �125,000 has been raised so far in the past

decade. We try and get as much as we can from the people

participating in the walk. They need the money to help them keep

going. We are pleased to play our little part in achieving that.

Walkers set off a for the 44 mile challenge from here at Ouaisne on

Saturday morning. For these four walkers it is a way of keeping a

friend's memory alive. Let's hope the weather stays good

for them. Guernsey's Christmas ice-skating

rink is now open to the public. It has been under construction in St

Peter Port's Market Square. The ice rink in parade his guard -- Parade

Gardens in St Helier opened as well this evening. Instructors will be

there to help people unsteady on their feet. I will teach you to

stand up and to skate round safely. If you escape before, I can teach

you to go backwards and turn around. -- if you skated before.

Are you still stuck for present ideas this Christmas, do you know a

sports fan who would love tickets for sports events? Or perhaps

someone who would like an iPad 2? Those are just a few of the things

that you can go for in the Christmas charity auction on BBC

Radio Jersey this Sunday. One of the organisers joined the earlier.

It will go very well. We have more lost than we have ever had before.

We have over 200 lot already. The auction will start at 9am and go on

till 5pm. We will be very busy. have a few things here in the

studio. What can we expect? You can be done going to Silverstone. You

would have a three-day Putnam pass for that. There is a wonderful

electric car. There are signed photographs. Lots of hampers, like

these. And lots of other wonderful little prizes and the big prizes,

like lunch for four. There is also a tour of the sewage works! Yes,

this is from the flush to the ultraviolet. It is a tour for 20

people. It is fantastic. It may be for the person you love, or maybe

the person you do not! Our very own Clare Burton will be at your every

beck and call as a waitress in your very own home. You can book us for

the evening. What is this all for? It is for the Jersey Christmas

appeal which will be buying fuel vouchers,. Aggers and food vouchers

for local families in Jersey. It will affect many families. It is a

wonderful calls. We want people to sponsor us as much as possible.

Thank you. There is a link to all of the lots

on the BBC does the website. -- BBC Hello. Some clear sky tonight

across the Channel Islands means of a potential for a bit of frost here

and there. Not an especially hard frost, but for the two larger

island of Guernsey and Jersey, temperatures will be close to

freezing. Behind this weather system or we will find a light

winds and cold air. Much of the day tomorrow will be fine and dry. But

then the change comes as weather fronts sweeping for Sunday.

Saturday it will be the better day. Looking at the detail for this

evening and overnight, some patchy cloud, but mostly that will fade

away. Overnight temperatures will be down close to freezing. Winds

light and from the north. Tomorrow morning, find in places, frosty

start, slightly more cloud developing through the afternoon.

Temperatures will be eight or nine degrees. Fairly light winds

tomorrow. There is our coastal waters forecast. Here are the times

of high water. For our surface, I think that the surf will clean up

quite nicely for the weekend. There will be reasonable waves as well.

The outlook for Sunday is a lot more cloudy. It may be briefly

chilly on Saturday night. Cloud will roll in to lift the