12 December 2012 Last updated at 11:16 ET

Jersey politician wants parish roles more clearly explained

The power and role of parish officials should be made clearer according to a St Helier politician.

Deputy Mike Higgins wants the States of Jersey to produce a paper explaining what constables, centeniers and the roads committees do.

He said it was unclear exactly what powers they had.

The constables committee said the information is already available and has been summarised many times over the years in various documents.

Translated to English

Many of Jersey's laws are still written in French, and that, said Deputy Mike Higgins, means they are unclear and inaccessible.

He wants all laws relating to the parishes translated to English and re-enacted in the States.

The constables claim that would take extensive resources and require every law to be debated in the States and approved by the Privy Council again.

Jersey is split into 12 parish authorities each with a number of powers including issuing driving licences and controlling Sunday trading.