St Helena : St Helena ExCo Report 55
Submitted by Saint Helena Herald (Public Relations Information Office) 08.10.2010 (Article Archived on 22.10.2010)
As I anticipated in my ExCo broadcast on 14th September, we needed an additional meeting yesterday to maintain momentum with the many reform programmes now being taken forward by your elected Members.
St Helena ExCo Report 55
As I anticipated in my ExCo broadcast on 14th September, we needed an additional meeting yesterday to maintain momentum with the many reform programmes now being taken forward by your elected Members. Part of the drive for change is of course related to the “MOU” on air access. We will be engaging with the public on MOU issues increasingly during the next few weeks, and today Members noted the positive response that we have already received from the Department for International Development on the first draft of the MOU which we sent to them last week.
But many of the policy changes being made are important to the Island irrespective of air access. The first item on our open agenda, for example, was a Bill to introduce basic employment rights on St Helena. If passed into law by the Legislative Council next month, employees in the private sector will for the first time have the right under law to have proper statements of their terms and conditions of employment from their employers, and help in the event of unfair dismissal. Employers will benefit as much as staff from this legal clarity.
These provisions may seem to some both basic and overdue. But the Education and Employment Committee has taken into account the legitimate concerns of employers voiced during recent public consultation, as well as the need not to impose unrealistic standards in a small and vulnerable economy.
A good example of this pragmatic attitude was Council’s decision to put back reference in the new legislation to the Government’s power to introduce regulations in future on such issues as working hours and holiday entitlements, as well as paid or unpaid maternity leave. During the latest round of public consultation, employers had expressed concern about unrealistic regulations being brought into effect without due consultation. The Bill as now amended will make such consultation obligatory and, as in the case of a statutory minimum wage, any further steps taken will need to take due account of the potential impact on the Island’s economic growth and global competitiveness.
Members then turned to a proposal from the Chairman of the Health and Social Welfare Committee to bring in more stringent regulation of the quality of the Island’s fish and fish products sold commercially. Members unanimously agreed that a Bill to put these measures into effect should be introduced into our next formal LegCo. I have sometimes heard during my tenure as Acting Governor concerns that we are “bringing in too many laws”. In fact what we need is not fewer laws, but better and more modern ones. And these new laws need to do more than satisfy DfID that we are ticking the right boxes for budgetary aid: they need to show that St Helena is part of the real, competitive world. In the case of our strategic fish industry, this means making sure that we can meet international standards - not to please London, but to allow us to export fish. At the same time, your Council has not forgotten that St Helena has its own character - one we must preserve - and thus that the need for commercial enterprises to meet EU standards will not affect the traditional operation of part-time, individual Island fishermen.
Moving to the closed agenda, Members first resumed discussion of the revised Budget for the current financial year. Taking into account additional information provided by the Financial Secretary, they agreed that a Supplementary Appropriation Bill should be brought to the next formal sitting of LegCo, allowing adjustments to be made to the original Budget to reflect developments over the first half of the year. These adjustments are largely of an operational nature, and will not unduly affect the healthy surplus which we are currently maintaining in the reserves, or “Consolidated Fund”, as it is properly called.
With Mike Dean, the Tourism Development Executive and David Taylor, the Physical Urban Planner in attendance, Members then turned to a paper prepared by the Deputy Chairman of the Civil Society, Tourism and Leisure Committee concerning major improvements planned for the Main Street in James Town. Although such improvements already form part of our Tourism Development Plan, the Committee had, in my view rightly, come to the view that highly visible changes to the “gateway to the Island” would be of interest to all Members. The intention is to plant trees, repair broken curbs, restore the Run, and reduce car parking in our unique historic centre. It was agreed that public consultation on these long awaited measures would be carried out by the Committee in the coming weeks.
Another important part of the Island’s reform programme is the revision of our outdated policies on land use and disposal. Members discussed in some detail a paper presented by the Deputy Chairman of the Natural Resources, Development and Environment Committee, which will form the basis of a new policy on land use. The effect should be to add much greater clarity to the entire planning process: forbidding development where it is inappropriate, but actively encouraging it where it is. More of our under-utilized land could then be opened up to residential or commercial use, whilst always bearing in mind the need to preserve the ability of Saints to have access to affordable housing. There will of course be public consultation on both the principles and the details of the changes envisaged.
Council then dealt with, in a business-like way, technical issues relating to the development of the James Town wharf and income tax regulations. One example concerned the administrative arrangements for access to taxation records and information. I agreed with Members that we should in future seek as far as possible to delegate discussion of this level of detail down to responsible officers in the Administration, or concerned statutory Boards.
After thorough consideration of matters arising from the previous two meetings of Council, the meeting closed at about 5.30 pm. As this was likely to be the last meeting of ExCo before the return to Island of H.E. Governor Gurr, I took the opportunity to thank Members for their support over the last two months, and in particular for their enthusiasm in taking difficult decisions and facing up to the “gear change” we need as we seek to enter a new and more prosperous phase of the Island’s development.
Andrew R Wells
Acting Governor
30.9.10
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