Falklands : Transport Public Meeting
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 17.04.2006 (Article Archived on 01.05.2006)
A Public Meeting Report on Transport issues.
PUBLIC MEETING REPORT FOR THE INTEGRATED TRANSPORT STUDY
By J. Brock (FINN)
A public meeting took place in the Court and council Chamber of the Town Hall at 1700hrs on Thursday, 13 April 2006. Approximately 20 members of the public including Councillors attended. A slide presentation about the Integrated Transport Study was presented by the Chief Executive Mr. Chris Simpkins, who was keen to find out what the people thought of the study for help in the decision making process. He brought several copies of the study with him.
He began with a slide that showed how the 10% of government expenditure that covered transport was spent. £750,000.00 went to shipping, £984,000.00 is spent of FIGAS and £2,339,000.00 on roads. Total net expenditure is £4,073,000.00.
The next slides dealt with issues in Shipping, FIGAS and Roads. Shipping issues are: Reducing income from Shipping, The East-West (Interim) Ferry Service, Linking with Roads and other infrastructure, Reducing Port Calls, Reducing Frequency of Port Calls, Review of Tariffs, Replacement of the Tamar, Changing of the Home Port and Integration with the MOD. FIGAS Issues are: Ageing Airframes, Increasing Maintenance Costs, Demand Service vs Scheduled Service, Serving Tourism, Reducing the Number of Airstrips Served, Maintenance of Stanley Airport, Integrating with the Road Network and Review of Subsidies and Freight Rates. Roads issues are: Imminent Completion of the Road Construction Programme, Impact on Employment, The Need for Programmed Maintenance, The Need to Determine Maintenance Standards and Upgrade Options, Surfacing of the MPA Road and Commercial Road User Charges.
As for roads, Mr. Simpkins said he wondered if savings would be achieved at the end of the construction programme because there will need to be a lot more programmed maintenance. He also speculated that the standard of maintenance would need to be improved. Increased amounts of traffic during the winter, for example, would help to deteriorate the roads much more quickly.
Mr. Simpkins stressed that it would be highly unlikely that road user charges would be levied. He finished by saying that in April and May the Transport Advisory Committee would be considering representations and in June the report would go to EXCO.
He then asked for representations and questions from the public by posing questions:
What ideas do you have for the future development and use of transport?
Can shipping and flights be integrated with roads?
Can flights be reduced without seriously damaging communications generally?
Should the home port of the Tamar be changed?
Should we change freight tariffs?
Should we be seen to reduce expenditure on transport?
Where would you reduce the transport budget?
What about maintenance standards? Do you have observations to share with us?
Mr. Simpkins then said that no single department had responsibility for transport and he asked if there should be a separate department that dealt exclusively with transport.
Norman Clark asked what was the weight bearing structure of the Camp Roads and Cris Simpkins said that it would vary. Former Councillor Luxton said the maximum weight was 38 tonnes but it reduced to 15 tonnes in the winter. He added that years ago a figure of 5 tonnes per axel was the norm. Chris Simpkins said that one of the things we can observe is that there has been more heavy traffic on the MPA Road and it did appear to him that certain parts of it have suffered as a result.
On another subject Cllr. Robertson mentioned that FIGAS had a trial scheduled run between Stanley and Port Howard that seemed to have been abandoned. Mr. Simpkins said there hadn’t been a trial in the last three years. Tom Chater mentioned that with the scheduled service the number of seats on the Islander Aircraft was restrictive. He also mentioned that though Port Howard was visited frequently it did not amount to a schedule. Cllr Luxton mentioned that incentives like half price tickets would encourage people to use a scheduled service. Annie Gisby wondered if it would be feasible for people to go to Fox Bay Village for a scheduled flight. She mentioned it was a long way to go for a flight. Tom Chater said it was all very well for those who lived near to Fox bay but not for people who lived at a great distance.
Cllr. Robertson said there has been a big investment in the road networks but to isolate them by having no flights may not leave isolated people better off and that we were trying to develop Camp. To replace one service with another would be like taking one step forward and two steps back. Chris Simpkins agreed and said that government faced the dilemma of conflicting ambitions and it was very frequently the case. Implications of cost cutting often mean service reduction. Public demand for public services is increasing but the ability to meet that demand is reducing. Managing expectations and disappointments was part of the scene. He used access to the best quality health service as an example. The ability of Governments across the world to match the demand generated by the internet, for example, means that the government will struggle to meet the demand.
Annie Gisby said that it would be ideal for Government to make money from the services it provides and that FIG should behave more commercially. Tom Chater mentioned that a cost saving measure would be to introduce fuel to the West. This would cut the subsidy by £400,000.00. It wasn’t attractive or cost-effective for tourists to fly to Stanley prior to a flight to Fox Bay. On a related subject Tom Chater said that at the moment FIGAS had more aircraft than pilots and that FIGAS could get on with one less airframe and fly the aircraft they have. Stephen Luxton reminded him that one reason why another airframe came into service was because the re was only one airframe in use when two had exceeded their flying hours. He also mentioned that if Brintel could come in with tourists during late hours FIGAS could as well. The option, however, had been offered to FIGAS and was turned down. Mr. Luxton asked if anyone had asked the Tourism Industry about this but Chris Simpkins said that the industry was reluctant to express a view about it. Cllr Robertson asked if there could be a match of services with periods of demand.
Gerald Cheek said that it would be beneficial to seal the MPA Road and stop flying there all together. Tom Chater mentioned the ditches. The reason for the ditches was to prevent undermining the substructure of the road. Norman Clark suggested French drains but added that it was over reaction of drivers trying not to go into the ditches that caused many accidents. Tom Chater mentioned that soon the road would be single track because road surface area decreased each time it was graded. Norman Clark mentioned that there was no consistency in the surface and the size of the rocks varied from pebbles to what he described as boulders. Karen Lee asked about crash barriers and Former Cllr. Luxton said that somewhere there were figures where the crash barriers near the minefields were costed.
Cllr. Robertson asked if there were a development plan whereby Port Howard and fox Bay Village could receive bulk supplies. Chris Simpkins said that the Ferry Service would be a useful method of getting supplies into ports. Cllr Robertson mentioned that it would be cheaper to assist in infrastructure development in port areas and it would produce savings. Chris Simpkins mentioned that this had begun already. Cllr Rendell asked if this could be taken a stage further and offer incentives to have people come to Stanley to do their shopping and take it home. Questions relating to taking goods to designated ports brought the answer that a cost-benefit analysis needed to be done prior to considering this as an option.
A lorry that went on the Ferry would be an option for heavy goods deliveries on the West. It would also save on fuel. Three or four days could be spent with the lorry and the rest of the time could be spent making deliveries via ship to other places on the West. Chris Simpkins asked if the consumer would pay more. Norman Clark asked if we really needed a ship the size of the Tamar and he suggested that an LTC would do the job.
Former Councillor Luxton asked if the tender process would be in the public domain. This was followed by the concern of Cllr. Robertson that fuel supplies were critical and wondered if there was a way to deliver fuel to remote places prior to other freight.
Chris Simpkins then wanted feedback about the current standard of road maintenance. Stephen Luxton said that the roads on the West were bad over the Christmas period. Maintenance on some of the East roads hasn’t been done yet.
Cllr. Rendell said that in the Transport Advisory Committee it was difficult to see where management was taking place. Karen Lee said that she favoured an individual department dealing with transport. Chris Simpkins said that at times there were opportunities to improve transport management but it was commonplace within FIG to suppress initiatives. Annie Gisby said that when this happens the people suffer. Tom Chater said there didn’t seem to be any accountability for management. Chris Simpkins said there was a great emphasis on status quo here and that management at times suffered from this. People looked to Government for many things rather than taking initiative for themselves. He mentioned that we have an economy that enjoyed full employment and people naturally looked to Government to solve problems. At times people were afraid to put their heads above the parfait.
Cllr Robertson ended the meeting by saying that we get a lot of advice from outside and this tends to people not really knowing what they are doing.
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