12/01/2017 Channel Islands News

damning criticism of the now-suspended

Jersey Innovation Fund, which used public money

Good evening and welcome to the late news

An internal investigation is launched by Guernsey Buses

after one if its buses is filmed being driven in what's

And while the gales may ease later, what we have now is bitterly cold

arctic air. Some of the showers will be wintry. More details from me

later in the programme. A damning report's been published

into a States of Jersey fund that's potentially lost millions of pounds

of taxpayers' money. According to the report,

the Jersey Innovation Fund - which has now been suspended -

may have been linked This is one of the companies

that got a loan from But the start-up software firm

Logfiller never paid back It's emerged six of the seven

companies given loans totalling ?2 million of taxpayers'

money are in arrears. The idea of the Jersey

Innovation Fund when it was set up under

the Economic Development Department four years ago was to support

new business ideas. But a report has highlighted serious

failings in how it was run. One of those running

it was Chief Executive You may remember him

from the scandal around business class flights

to South Africa. Well, last week, he resigned,

with six months' pay - that's ?70,000 - and hasn't

responded to our calls Elsewhere in the document,

the author also hints at criminal links to

the fund, saying... The fund will be investigated

by the Public Accounts Committee, In my time as chairman of public

accounts and in my time as a politician, this is the worst

I've seen. There's been a complete absence

of competent administration here, the terms of reference agreed

by the States have There are no set key performance

indicators to even measure the companies that were lent these

sums, so that really, really is very disappointing

and quite distressing. Earlier, Jersey's Chief Minister,

Senator Ian Gorst He told me he was angered by

the handling of the Innovation Fund and said it was

completely unacceptable. and the chief

executive is looking at whether disciplinary

action is needed. He also reviewing the other grant

funded organisations to make sure these feelings

are not replicated there. On top of that, this

is the report of that administration, but I want to make

sure the politicians involved have not added to or been

involved in the conclusions that the report says

and I'm instigating an investigation

that will be without fear or favour and if it says action should be

taken, action will be taken. Guernsey's newest member

of the Committee for Education, Sport and Culture says the States

feels likes it's gone Deputy Neil Inder was the only

person who put themselves forward for election

for the vacant position. He replaces Deputy Marc Leadbeater,

who resigned from the committee when Deputy Emilie Yerby wrote

to members announcing her intention It has not been fun. It has been a

emotional and torrid affair. All of us have to get over this hump. We

have to start liking each other again. It has been with the, by

quite a divorce is like. At some point, we will have to get round the

table, have a copy and drop our attitudes. Maybe I am one of those.

Perhaps I was fairly irritated and said some things I should not have

said. Sark Vineyards has announced

the closure of its business in Sark. Sark Estate Management -

owned by the Barclay brothers - say they have invested millions

of pounds in the project, but they now fail to see any future

in Sark or its economy. The company says in a statement

the authorities in Sark "have obstructed the

vineyards' progress Campaigners calling on Jersey

to resolve funding issues for university students have been

giving evidence at a panel hearing which could improve financial

support for higher education. Members of the Jersey Student Loans

Support Group told the Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel

that the island was being let down by the States of Jersey as it failed

to find a solution to the An internal investigation has been

launched by Guernsey's bus operator after footage shared on social media

appears to show one of its fleet driving

in a potentially dangerous way. It comes on the same day Government

figures reveal the number of passengers using the service

has reached a 20-year high. Love them or loathe them -

Guernsey's buses are proving increasingly popular

with the travelling public. More than 1.65 million people made

use of the bus service last year, the highest recorded figure

since records began. Well, it's ?1 to anywhere

in the island, which certainly helps, but how have they managed

to get so many passengers Well, we're being told that it's

because students now have free transport,

there's been the introduction of a new bus app, and also a greater

use of smart cards which has made it But not everything is running

smoothly on the buses. This footage shared on social media

has resulted in an internal investigation being launched by CT

Plus. We have a contract with CT Plus,

and the contract does not deal with terms and conditions or how

the drivers happen to drive, but we clearly would show our

disapproval or communicate with CT Plus, if we felt that

an incident was inappropriate. But the buses are wide,

we know that and I think sometimes for the newer drivers to the island

who drive in cities, rather than in small,

what were once cart tracks, then it takes them some

time to acclimatise. CT Plus has declined

to comment further while the investigation is ongoing,

but elsewhere it's And, these buses, which have caused

so much controversy are set to be replaced by these,

shorter and narrower ones, with phase one of that plan

due to happen by May. There's been a big increase

in the number of wild farmland birds in Jersey,

all thanks to a scheme trying These wild birds have

spent the winter growing Around 50 fields across

the island have been planted with crops to make sure endangered

species have another food to survive the coldest

months of the year. The species are declining

across Europe and the reason is for changes in farming practices,

climate change and destruction of Last winter, there were almost

14,000 more birds than Since the winter of 2013,

there's been an even bigger It costs around ?100 to cover

an area the size of a football That cost is largely met by private

donations, often from It's giving something back

to the environment and the island because we are not just all about

growing potatoes and making money. Therefore, we want to be seen

as doing what is right. Researchers haven't

finished painting the birds spotted this winter but believe

numbers are still growing. Ultimately, they hope to take

species like these of the endangered The weather is pretty

nasty at the moment. Several roads in Guernsey

and Jersey have been blocked. Condor's cancelled its fast ferries

to France and England for the next two days -

and Jersey Met Department has issued Good evening. Our arctic air has

arrived. It is pretty cold right now. A bitterly cold wind. More

sunshine tomorrow than today. Also the risk of wintry showers. As well

as the continued risk overnight tonight of thunderstorms. Out of

those, some help, maybe some snow showers. -- some hailstones. A

northerly flow from the acting bull arctic. They will continue south, a

France will pass by early this morning. More showers, some... A

gale-force northerly wind. When the winds begin to ease and it gets less

cold. Some showers overnight tonight will have thunder, capable of

producing wintry showers as they move through fairly fat. Brisk

north-west winds, but that will not stop the temperatures between zero

and 2 degrees. Some ice in the morning. A scattering of showers,

sunny spells but windy. It will be a pretty cold day of five or 6 degrees

as a maximum. Across a large part of Europe, it is cold. Good news for

skiers. The same weather system affects the alp, giving a dollop of

snow towards the end of the day tomorrow. Weekend for us, slightly

less cold. Sunday, a bottom club around. Then temperatures getting

back up into double figures. -- eight not off cloud.

note. If that's not your sort of thing, Sunday will be cloudier and