An under-fire Alderney politician has hit back at his colleagues, saying people are growing “rightfully angry” at their “arrogant” States members over the AI data centre row.
Alex Snowdon recently found himself in trouble after sharing details about a potential data centre with a member of the public – which led to him getting temporarily banned from the States.
Mr Snowdon previously said the Code of Conduct complaints process is being used to “gag” him for “raising concerns about this vast project on Alderney”.
Now he’s gone further, telling Express the ongoing discussions about a potential data centre could lead to a “major constitutional crisis in the island”.
He said he was also concerned that a debate on the topic may be held while he is suspended, preventing him from taking part.
“My main concern is that the system can and is being used as a political weapon to silence opposition to political decisions,” explained Mr Snowdon.
Last month, Mr Snowden was sanctioned by the Commissioner for Standards after being found to have breached the States Members Code of Conduct.
Mr Snowdon’s punishment was suspension for the next three States meetings, meaning he won’t be involved in political debates or votes in Alderney until January – but he can still attend Guernsey’s States meetings.
Suspended for AI debate?
He said was worried “decisions made unilaterally by the Standards Commissioner can have severe political repercussions and actually influence political debate and the decision making process”.
“I have now been suspended from attending all the Alderney States meetings until January.
“During this time it is expected that the data centre project will be discussed, voted on and advanced – this is an example of what I mean by political repercussions.”
“Attending States meetings is not a pleasure, it is an obligation involving hard work and a certain amount of stress.
“Being suspended doesn’t actually punish or deter me, what it does do is prevent me debating and voting on behalf of those members of the public who voted for me to represent them.
“Effectively the commissioner is denying them important representation during a major decision making process.”
Major electoral issue
Outlining his concerns in more detail, Mr Snowdon said he recently listened to a podcast posing the questions ‘Are data centres going to crash the world economy?’.
He warned that opposition to them is becoming a “major electoral issue in countries worldwide”.
With Alderney going to the polls to elect half of its States later this year, Mr Snowdon thinks the potential data will be an ongoing hot topic, despite his place in government being secured for another two years.
“Until now there has been absolutely no public consultation or debate and no health or environmental risk assessment,” he said.
“There has been a feasibility study but the Head of Operations has declared this as confidential so it cannot be given to the public for consideration.
“The public know this and they know that the States received and have been acting on a high-level, detailed proposals for hyperscale data centres on Alderney (50MW and 200 MW) with supporting infrastructure.”
“The public are now rightfully becoming angry,” Mr Snowdon added.
“Confidence in the States is apparently an all time low.
“[The public] see States members as arrogant in that they think they know better than the public what is or is not beneficial to Alderney and then work toward implementation without any public interaction.”
