Channel Islands news round-up October 10-17

Problems with the export of scallops to France, the need to re-home a colony of fruit bats and the costs faced by supermarkets for new freight charges are among the stories you may have missed this week.

Here are six pieces from the Channel Islands from the past seven days.

A woman praised the “absolute heroes” who “worked tirelessly” to find her lost engagement and wedding rings which were accidentally thrown out in a bin bag when she was decluttering her home.

Katie Thomas lost her rings after clearing out some drawers, and realized they may have made their way to the tip after being put in the bin by her three-year-old daughter by mistake.

She contacted Guernsey Waste who tracked her visit to the tip on CCTV and found the rings at Longue Hougue.

A supermarket boss has warned of price rises as well deals with a £400,000 shortfall due to extra freight charges.

Referring to a flat rate charging system introduced by ferry firm DFDS in March, Morrisons operating director Andrew Holmes told Jersey’s economic scrutiny panel on Monday it had “no time” to account for costs they “weren’t told about”.

“It’s got to be passed on to the customer or we’re going to have to look at other cost cutting exercises,” he said.

A seafood supplier has said it is becoming “very difficult” to export to France due to new import requirements – including how ice is made.

Nathalie Porritt, manager of Aqua-mar fisheries, told the BBC they could no longer use Jersey tap water to make the ice due to the paperwork required and said some shipments of scallops had to be destroyed because they did not meet temperature requirements.

The claims were strongly refuted by St Malo’s border control which said they were “a pack of lies”.

“No ice water analysis was requested by the inspection service in Saint Malo, and no scallops were refused or destroyed in Saint Malo,” it said.

Jersey Zoo meets made the “difficult decision” to rehome its Livingstone fruit bats.

The owners of the zoo, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, said they were looking for new homes for its colony of bats after weighing up the benefits of repairing the Bat Tunnel.

The trust said the cost of rebuilding the tunnel would be “at least seven figures”.

More flights out of the Channel Islands have been scheduled for next yearan airline announced.

Blue Islands said it would be expanding its flights from Jersey to Dublin, Newcastle, Norwich and Paris.

It said the Norwich service would be non-stop from Guernsey alongside its existing routes to Southampton, Jersey and Newcastle.

Work has started resurfacing roads in Alderney nor part of a five-year project.

Guernsey’s Policy and Resources Committee approved £1.75m for the program of works, with £660,000 of the sum being spent in 2025, prioritizing Alderney’s most deteriorated roads.

It is the first time Alderney has had its roads resurfaced since 2017.

Steve Brown, contracting director from Ronez, said the machinery used was “just the same as though you were building the M1 in the UK”.