A CONSTABLE has apologised after his “embarrassing” blunder meant that most of the Christmas lights in his parish mysteriously remained switched off for the entire festive season.
Befuddled St Brelade parishioners took to social media earlier this week when the festive decorations in St Aubin were due to be taken down from lampposts – because, after being put up in November, they had never been turned on.
Some were more vehement than others, demanding answers and explanations from their local States Members.
“What happened?” asked one disgruntled Islander, “did the parish forget to pay the bill? How embarrassing for States Members responsible for St Brelade parish not to notice this.”
After one of the parish’s Deputies, Moz Scott, pledged to “look into it” – the buck then passed to Constable Mike Jackson who did some further investigating.
Unfortunately, the buck stopped with him as he discovered he was the culprit – and had needed to ask the Infrastructure and Environment Department to turn them on.
Speaking to the JEP, he explained: “The department are responsible for putting them up on the lampposts in St Aubin and the usual arrangement is that they get turned on at the same time that we turn on our parish hall lights.
“Due to technical reasons, we can turn those on from inside the hall, but the ones on lampposts have to be done by someone else.
“We wondered why they didn’t come on that day, and we made inquiries to certain people who we thought were responsible.
“I only discovered this morning that they still hadn’t been turned on, and it seems that fault is mine, in that I didn’t ask Infrastructure to turn them on.
“I have been in office for 18 years and never had to ask anybody before. I suppose there’s a first for everything.”
The miscommunication was exacerbated by recent changes in staff, he added.
He reassured parishioners that the issue had been resolved in time for next Christmas, and that “everyone has been well and truly primed” for the switch-on.
“I’m embarrassed and apologetic and I am as equally disappointed as everyone else will be, but I swear it won’t happen again.”
