Falklands : May 2005 Executive Council Report
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 27.05.2005 (Article Archived on 10.06.2005)
Executive Council met twice this week, primarily (as is usual at this time of the year) to deal with matters connected with the annual budget session of Legislative Council. But there were also a number of other issues on Executive Council’s agenda, the key elements. H. E. the Governor Mr. Howard Pearce tells us more.
GOVERNOR’S REPORT ON THE MEETINGS OF EXECUTIVE COUNCIL ON MONDAY 23 MAY AND WEDNESDAY 25 MAY 2005
Executive Council met twice this week, primarily (as is usual at this time of the year) to deal with matters connected with the annual budget session of Legislative Council. But there were also a number of other issues on Executive Council’s agenda, the key elements of which I describe below.
Executive Council had before it the latest version of the long-awaited Fisheries (Conservation and Management) Bill. The text of this long and complex Bill has now been agreed with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. ExCo agreed that it should be published for public consultation, before remission in due course to Legislative Council, and the text of the Bill will therefore be printed in the Gazette at the end of this month.
ExCo considered the scheme for new sewage disposal arrangements on Ross Road. The purpose of this scheme is to reduce the level of discharge of untreated sewage into Stanley Harbour, by collecting the discharge from two of the major out-falls on Ross Road and transferring it through the pumping main already serving East Stanley to the Rookery Bay out-fall. Detailed work on the scheme has shown that the initial estimate for the cost of this work was optimistic. The revised overall estimated cost is now £880,000. ExCo agreed that the project should nevertheless proceed, that phase 1 of the scheme should be carried out in the financial year 2005/06 (at an estimated cost of £350,000), and that phase 2 should be placed in the capital programme for 2006/07, at a cost of £530,000.
Nearly five years ago, in October 2000, ExCo approved a scheme to provide grants for off-street parking in Stanley. The scheme was subsequently amended in 2002 and confined to a ‘core area’ of central Stanley. Since the scheme was established, a substantial number of grants has been made and a total of £25,203.69 has been spent. The rate of applications for grants under the scheme has in recent times dropped sharply and ExCo concluded that, taking into account the current budgetary situation, the scheme had come to the end of its useful life. It was therefore agreed that the scheme should be brought to an end with effect from 1 July 2005, and the current budget provision reduced to £2,500 to meet commitments already agreed since 1 July 2003. Commitments made before that date would be deemed to be time expired.
An approach has been made to Councillors by the Merchant Navy Falklands 82 Memorial Trust, who have requested support for the establishment of a small memorial to the merchant seamen who lost their lives in the Falklands conflict, to be located alongside the main memorial on Tower Hill in London to merchant seamen who lost their lives in the two World Wars. ExCo agreed to make a donation of £1,500 to this worthy cause.
The next item concerns Stanley Kids Zone, and their application for planning permission for a change of use of 3 Jersey Road to a day care facility. Stanley Kids Zone had appealed against certain conditions attached by the Planning and Building Committee to the granting of planning permission. These concerned arrangements for staff parking and for the delivery and collection of children from the site. Following the appeal, there have been further discussions between Stanley Kids Zone, the Director of Public Works and the Environmental Planning Officer, as a result of which a compromise solution has been reached. ExCo endorsed the proposals now agreed between the parties.
ExCo welcomed the inspection report dated March 2005 on the Infant and Junior School, the Community School and Camp Education, and noted the recommendations in the report. Members welcomed the progress made since the previous inspection in November 2002, and agreed that the report should now be published.
ExCo considered an aspect of housing policy concerning the treatment of applications for government accommodation from property owners and ex-property owners. They agreed that housing policy should be brought into line with the policy applied to applicants for plots in East Stanley: that is to say that property owners who found themselves requiring accommodation as a result of a relationship breakdown will henceforth be treated as follows:
- Where the breakdown of a relationship was the only reason for the sale of a house, either or both parties to the relationship could apply for government housing without having to wait one year from the date of sale;
- Where, following the breakdown of a relationship, an individual signed a separation agreement or other document in which they agreed that eventually they would have no legal interest in the former home, and was not resident in the home, they could apply for government housing even if their name remained on the title to the former home in the meantime (eg to guarantee mortgage payments or pending sale).
Finally, in anticipation of his departure from the Falkland Islands at the end of this month, I thanked Air Commodore Lacey for his valuable contribution to Executive Council during his period of office and extended to him and his wife, on behalf of ExCo members, very best wishes for the future.
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