OUTGOING Environment Minister Steve Luce said he was “clearly disappointed” at not being re-elected, but he understood that the role he had twice taken up in the States invariably involved making tough decisions that made some people unhappy.
He finished in 11th place in the Senatorial election with 8,669 votes.
He said: “The Environment Minister ends up making a lot of decisions, and you have to have thick skin to do the job and accept that every decision you make usually makes one person happy and another unhappy, and people tend to remember the unhappiness more than the happiness.
“That is why it is a challenging one to go into an election on, but hey, I’m not beating myself up about it. I gave it a good shot, I was very clear with the public, but they obviously didn’t like it enough. There we are.”
Deputy Luce said his achievements had included bringing in laws around rented dwellings, animal welfare and Marine Protected Areas, finding funds to support fishing and farming, and reforming the planning process, but he had never rested on his laurels.
The 67-year-old said that the Environment Minister role had always been “a bit of a poisoned chalice” adding: “I call a spade a spade and I thought it important that I wasn’t aspirational but clear about what I would do, including bringing forward sites [for development] and improving the amount of locally produced food for local consumption.
“I set out my stall and I was trying hard to put some clear water between myself and other candidates – I thought that might appeal but it didn’t appeal enough. I was very grateful for the support I received, but looking back, it was obviously too much of a challenge.”
First elected in 2011, Deputy Luce served in the Assembly for four terms, one-and-a-half of those as Environment Minister. Despite being retirement age, he said he was unsure about completely stepping back but he was looking forward to a few weeks of relaxation.
He said: “I have set myself a target for Monday morning to wake up with a list of jobs to do around the house and garden, and look at the weather forecast to see if I can do a bit of boating, dog walking, things like that.
“I’m looking forward to spending more time with Frances, my grandchildren and wider family – all the all the normal stuff that one does when one goes into retirement.
“That said I’ve already had a couple of phone calls so let’s see what the future holds.”
Before that, Deputy Luce said he would be busy this week making some planning appeal decisions before he relinquishes his ministerial duties on Friday.
Asked if he had any words of wisdom for the next Environment Minister, Deputy Luce said: “I’m not sure that I would be bold enough to give them any advice, but clearly there is a desire among the public, or certainly the other candidates on the Senatorial hustings, to make the planning process even easier.
“However, I would offer a word of caution against any dramatic change to the Island Plan, but clearly, we need to make life a little bit easier; there are processes that can be modified.
“I think we could probably have a little bit less process in the planning application stage. Depending on the size of your application, there are a lot of reports and reviews and consultations you have to do to support your application, but I’d like to feel that ministers and officers could be given a bit more confidence to be bold enough to make decisions.
“I think the Planning Committee and appeal process could also be speeded up.”
He added that the offshore windfarm would also be ‘slowly’ coming back on the agenda, adding that “we are in a closer position to finding a market for energy than we were six months ago”.
