St Helena : St Helena's Governor Reports from the UK
Submitted by Saint Helena Herald (Public Relations Information Office) 30.07.2009 (Article Archived on 13.08.2009)
I am virtually at the end of my first week in London and have had quite a few meetings that I hope have been helpful to the Island.
REPORT FROM GOVERNOR IN THE UK – 24th July
I am virtually at the end of my first week in London and have had quite a few meetings that I hope have been helpful to the Island.
The economic atmosphere here is quite depressing and the General Election that has to be held next year at the latest is beginning to loom over Labour politicians and is clearly influencing their thinking.
I have met both the DFiD and FCO Minsters who are responsible for us. It was my first meeting with Chris Bryant of the FCO, and so there were no previous encounters to build on. I felt that we had a polite exchange of views especially about the airport. Mike Foster of DFiD had a much better understanding of our situation which is hardly surprising as he has had to defend the pause decision so often. He said that the consultation remains a genuine device to sound opinion and that notice will be taken of what the Saints have been saying. I was able to express my deep concern over the ongoing loss of skills as Saints seek more lucrative employment elsewhere as well as the fact that we do not want to miss out on infrastructure investment that may have been linked to the airport. I felt that he understood both these points.
I also had a long meeting with the SHL Board to discuss shipping issues. We covered a great deal of ground and agreed that the 2 UK trips per year should be resumed after the 2010 engine overhaul which will keep the ship in the South Atlantic throughout next year. There is also a great deal of enthusiasm for at least 1 Tristan trip per year and personally I am very much in favour of that. The good news is that we are at last able to reduce the bunker surcharge, and a notice will be issued shortly, if it hasn’t been done already. The drop will be about 25% in the actual surcharge which represents over a 5% drop in the overall cost of a passage.
Another positive outcome from discussion is the fact that we will be integrating the marketing of our tourism. This means that the efforts to get more tourist passengers on the RMS will be handled by the same person as our land-based marketing. This makes good sense as it should be both more efficient and cheaper.
I have had meetings in DfID with both health and education advisers and in both those areas the importance of increased internet bandwidth was emphasised. I will be taking up this point with Cable & Wireless as well as our IT consultant, next week.
Interestingly I met with Richard Stoneman who some of you may remember from DfID in the late 90’s. He is now carrying out an EU consultancy aimed at enhancing the trade of remote Atlantic Territories. It is fairly clear that we are not as efficient as we could be at accessing possible EU funding streams. Generally that is due entirely to their complexity and we discussed what may be available and how we might get at it which should be useful.
Another issue I am trying to sort out is the difference that exists between St.Helena passports and British ones when Saints are actually using them in travelling. Although this was felt to be one of those insoluble problems, I believe that there may well be a solution and I hope to be able to announce something positive on my return to the Island.
There is quite a discussion going on in some circles here about our fishing prospects. This is a subject that we always seem to talk about, but never get anywhere. However there are some useful reports being produced by MRAG and I believe that we are getting closer to being able to plan a more productive future. I know that Crick Carlton’s visit to the Island has been helpful in this regard.
Obviously while I am here I am also dealing with Ascension and Tristan issues, and I had a useful meeting with Andrew James of Ovenstones, the lobster concessionaires, as well as some limbering up for discussions involving the MOD and the Ascension airbridge later in my visit.
I met with Shelco yesterday and their long running interest in St.Helena continues unabated in spite of all the setbacks that they have had to face. There is no doubt that their enthusiasm for our tourist potential is of considerable help in pressing the airport case and they will be putting forward their own submission to Rosemary Stevenson.
It is worth remembering that the deadline for submissions to the Consultation is the end of next week – 31st July. I have seen the various piles of letters and petitions in the DfID office, and I think it is fair to say that the pile for option (c) is pitifully small.
By the end of next week I hope I will be able to start having a holiday, but if there is anything that I feel worthy of reporting to you I will do so.
Andrew Gurr
Governor
24th July 2009
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