:00:12. > :00:15.damning criticism of the now-suspended
:00:16. > :00:17.Jersey Innovation Fund, which used public money
:00:18. > :00:21.Good evening and welcome to the late news
:00:22. > :00:29.An internal investigation is launched by Guernsey Buses
:00:30. > :00:32.after one if its buses is filmed being driven in what's
:00:33. > :00:50.And while the gales may ease later, what we have now is bitterly cold
:00:51. > :00:52.arctic air. Some of the showers will be wintry. More details from me
:00:53. > :00:56.later in the programme. A damning report's been published
:00:57. > :00:58.into a States of Jersey fund that's potentially lost millions of pounds
:00:59. > :01:00.of taxpayers' money. According to the report,
:01:01. > :01:05.the Jersey Innovation Fund - which has now been suspended -
:01:06. > :01:09.may have been linked This is one of the companies
:01:10. > :01:17.that got a loan from But the start-up software firm
:01:18. > :01:21.Logfiller never paid back It's emerged six of the seven
:01:22. > :01:29.companies given loans totalling ?2 million of taxpayers'
:01:30. > :01:31.money are in arrears. The idea of the Jersey
:01:32. > :01:35.Innovation Fund when it was set up under
:01:36. > :01:38.the Economic Development Department four years ago was to support
:01:39. > :01:43.new business ideas. But a report has highlighted serious
:01:44. > :01:46.failings in how it was run. One of those running
:01:47. > :01:48.it was Chief Executive You may remember him
:01:49. > :01:52.from the scandal around business class flights
:01:53. > :01:56.to South Africa. Well, last week, he resigned,
:01:57. > :01:58.with six months' pay - that's ?70,000 - and hasn't
:01:59. > :02:01.responded to our calls Elsewhere in the document,
:02:02. > :02:08.the author also hints at criminal links to
:02:09. > :02:17.the fund, saying... The fund will be investigated
:02:18. > :02:20.by the Public Accounts Committee, In my time as chairman of public
:02:21. > :02:24.accounts and in my time as a politician, this is the worst
:02:25. > :02:26.I've seen. There's been a complete absence
:02:27. > :02:29.of competent administration here, the terms of reference agreed
:02:30. > :02:31.by the States have There are no set key performance
:02:32. > :02:38.indicators to even measure the companies that were lent these
:02:39. > :02:41.sums, so that really, really is very disappointing
:02:42. > :02:46.and quite distressing. Earlier, Jersey's Chief Minister,
:02:47. > :02:50.Senator Ian Gorst He told me he was angered by
:02:51. > :02:54.the handling of the Innovation Fund and said it was
:02:55. > :02:57.completely unacceptable. and the chief
:02:58. > :03:01.executive is looking at whether disciplinary
:03:02. > :03:10.action is needed. He also reviewing the other grant
:03:11. > :03:12.funded organisations to make sure these feelings
:03:13. > :03:14.are not replicated there. On top of that, this
:03:15. > :03:17.is the report of that administration, but I want to make
:03:18. > :03:21.sure the politicians involved have not added to or been
:03:22. > :03:24.involved in the conclusions that the report says
:03:25. > :03:29.and I'm instigating an investigation
:03:30. > :03:34.that will be without fear or favour and if it says action should be
:03:35. > :03:39.taken, action will be taken. Guernsey's newest member
:03:40. > :03:41.of the Committee for Education, Sport and Culture says the States
:03:42. > :03:44.feels likes it's gone Deputy Neil Inder was the only
:03:45. > :03:48.person who put themselves forward for election
:03:49. > :03:50.for the vacant position. He replaces Deputy Marc Leadbeater,
:03:51. > :03:53.who resigned from the committee when Deputy Emilie Yerby wrote
:03:54. > :04:11.to members announcing her intention It has not been fun. It has been a
:04:12. > :04:15.emotional and torrid affair. All of us have to get over this hump. We
:04:16. > :04:23.have to start liking each other again. It has been with the, by
:04:24. > :04:28.quite a divorce is like. At some point, we will have to get round the
:04:29. > :04:35.table, have a copy and drop our attitudes. Maybe I am one of those.
:04:36. > :04:36.Perhaps I was fairly irritated and said some things I should not have
:04:37. > :04:38.said. Sark Vineyards has announced
:04:39. > :04:40.the closure of its business in Sark. Sark Estate Management -
:04:41. > :04:43.owned by the Barclay brothers - say they have invested millions
:04:44. > :04:45.of pounds in the project, but they now fail to see any future
:04:46. > :04:48.in Sark or its economy. The company says in a statement
:04:49. > :04:51.the authorities in Sark "have obstructed the
:04:52. > :04:53.vineyards' progress Campaigners calling on Jersey
:04:54. > :04:57.to resolve funding issues for university students have been
:04:58. > :05:00.giving evidence at a panel hearing which could improve financial
:05:01. > :05:02.support for higher education. Members of the Jersey Student Loans
:05:03. > :05:06.Support Group told the Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel
:05:07. > :05:09.that the island was being let down by the States of Jersey as it failed
:05:10. > :05:12.to find a solution to the An internal investigation has been
:05:13. > :05:24.launched by Guernsey's bus operator after footage shared on social media
:05:25. > :05:27.appears to show one of its fleet driving
:05:28. > :05:31.in a potentially dangerous way. It comes on the same day Government
:05:32. > :05:35.figures reveal the number of passengers using the service
:05:36. > :05:38.has reached a 20-year high. Love them or loathe them -
:05:39. > :05:42.Guernsey's buses are proving increasingly popular
:05:43. > :05:46.with the travelling public. More than 1.65 million people made
:05:47. > :05:51.use of the bus service last year, the highest recorded figure
:05:52. > :05:54.since records began. Well, it's ?1 to anywhere
:05:55. > :05:57.in the island, which certainly helps, but how have they managed
:05:58. > :05:59.to get so many passengers Well, we're being told that it's
:06:00. > :06:05.because students now have free transport,
:06:06. > :06:08.there's been the introduction of a new bus app, and also a greater
:06:09. > :06:12.use of smart cards which has made it But not everything is running
:06:13. > :06:17.smoothly on the buses. This footage shared on social media
:06:18. > :06:20.has resulted in an internal investigation being launched by CT
:06:21. > :06:24.Plus. We have a contract with CT Plus,
:06:25. > :06:27.and the contract does not deal with terms and conditions or how
:06:28. > :06:30.the drivers happen to drive, but we clearly would show our
:06:31. > :06:33.disapproval or communicate with CT Plus, if we felt that
:06:34. > :06:36.an incident was inappropriate. But the buses are wide,
:06:37. > :06:41.we know that and I think sometimes for the newer drivers to the island
:06:42. > :06:49.who drive in cities, rather than in small,
:06:50. > :06:51.what were once cart tracks, then it takes them some
:06:52. > :06:54.time to acclimatise. CT Plus has declined
:06:55. > :06:55.to comment further while the investigation is ongoing,
:06:56. > :06:57.but elsewhere it's And, these buses, which have caused
:06:58. > :07:02.so much controversy are set to be replaced by these,
:07:03. > :07:04.shorter and narrower ones, with phase one of that plan
:07:05. > :07:10.due to happen by May. There's been a big increase
:07:11. > :07:12.in the number of wild farmland birds in Jersey,
:07:13. > :07:15.all thanks to a scheme trying These wild birds have
:07:16. > :07:24.spent the winter growing Around 50 fields across
:07:25. > :07:32.the island have been planted with crops to make sure endangered
:07:33. > :07:35.species have another food to survive the coldest
:07:36. > :07:37.months of the year. The species are declining
:07:38. > :07:40.across Europe and the reason is for changes in farming practices,
:07:41. > :07:45.climate change and destruction of Last winter, there were almost
:07:46. > :07:55.14,000 more birds than Since the winter of 2013,
:07:56. > :07:59.there's been an even bigger It costs around ?100 to cover
:08:00. > :08:07.an area the size of a football That cost is largely met by private
:08:08. > :08:16.donations, often from It's giving something back
:08:17. > :08:23.to the environment and the island because we are not just all about
:08:24. > :08:29.growing potatoes and making money. Therefore, we want to be seen
:08:30. > :08:33.as doing what is right. Researchers haven't
:08:34. > :08:34.finished painting the birds spotted this winter but believe
:08:35. > :08:36.numbers are still growing. Ultimately, they hope to take
:08:37. > :08:39.species like these of the endangered The weather is pretty
:08:40. > :08:46.nasty at the moment. Several roads in Guernsey
:08:47. > :08:49.and Jersey have been blocked. Condor's cancelled its fast ferries
:08:50. > :08:51.to France and England for the next two days -
:08:52. > :09:11.and Jersey Met Department has issued Good evening. Our arctic air has
:09:12. > :09:16.arrived. It is pretty cold right now. A bitterly cold wind. More
:09:17. > :09:21.sunshine tomorrow than today. Also the risk of wintry showers. As well
:09:22. > :09:26.as the continued risk overnight tonight of thunderstorms. Out of
:09:27. > :09:35.those, some help, maybe some snow showers. -- some hailstones. A
:09:36. > :09:43.northerly flow from the acting bull arctic. They will continue south, a
:09:44. > :09:55.France will pass by early this morning. More showers, some... A
:09:56. > :10:00.gale-force northerly wind. When the winds begin to ease and it gets less
:10:01. > :10:05.cold. Some showers overnight tonight will have thunder, capable of
:10:06. > :10:09.producing wintry showers as they move through fairly fat. Brisk
:10:10. > :10:16.north-west winds, but that will not stop the temperatures between zero
:10:17. > :10:23.and 2 degrees. Some ice in the morning. A scattering of showers,
:10:24. > :10:29.sunny spells but windy. It will be a pretty cold day of five or 6 degrees
:10:30. > :10:34.as a maximum. Across a large part of Europe, it is cold. Good news for
:10:35. > :10:39.skiers. The same weather system affects the alp, giving a dollop of
:10:40. > :10:47.snow towards the end of the day tomorrow. Weekend for us, slightly
:10:48. > :10:53.less cold. Sunday, a bottom club around. Then temperatures getting
:10:54. > :11:02.back up into double figures. -- eight not off cloud.
:11:03. > :11:03.note. If that's not your sort of thing, Sunday will be cloudier and