A well-known face that appeared on Super Sport last year while attending the Manchester Games, Gilbert Yon MBE was presented with his insignia of a Member of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire on Saturday 31 May.

Governor Hollamby presented Gilbert with the Insignia at a dinner at Plantation House in the presence of close family and friends.

Commenting on his award, Gilbert said: "I feel honoured to know that H M the Queen had accepted the nomination for this award and was also grateful for the person or persons who made this nomination. "

With regard to voluntary services in the future, he said from what he has seen of the younger generations, "they will certainly get involved once it’s put there for them but they are not likely to get stuck in like the devoted generations before them."

Gilbert received the MBE in recognition of his services to St Helena through his employment in the private sector, as a former Member of Legislative Council and a volunteer in a number of non-Government and charitable organisations. To name but a few, Gilbert remains actively involved as the President of the Cricket Association, President of the St Helena National Trust and Secretary to the Island Games Association of St Helena and the St Helena Rifle Association.

He began his career with the St Helena Government as an Accounts Clerk in the late 1950’s, and after spending some time on Ascension Island as a General Labourer, a Plant Operator and later in an office managerial position, he returned to St Helena and commenced working with Solomon and Company plc. Gilbert has also been the Accountant for the St Helena Fisheries Corporation and then the Manager of the Small Industries Authority. The St Helena Development Agency came into being in 1995 and, within this Agency, Gilbert took on the newly created role of Project/Training Manager and later became a Business Advisor.

He also served as a Member of Legislative Council for some fifteen years.

As a result of his services to St Helena, Gilbert has assisted with the development and promotion of sport on the island, provided advice and guidance to a number of private sector businesses and has generally helped to bring about changes on the Island.

Gilbert said that he will continue to get involved in non Government and charitable activities and offer his services whenever the need may arise.

Gilbert also stated that there are others out there who are worthy of such recognition, and hope that they too will be justly rewarded.

The new £5m Health Link II project is designed to maintain the current level of health and medical services, to provide additional resources in identified areas of special needs, to develop local resource capacity through activities such as training of staff, and to measure the results.

The Department has six objectives, which are to be achieved over the next five years. The first relates to family health and the overall aim is to ensure that the Island has healthy children, mothers, fathers, grandparents and strong family units in all locations.

The department has already planned a course of action in order to achieve this over the next five years:

Health education is seen as a priority and Ivy Ellick, Chief Administrative Health and Social Services Officer said that people will be educated about health issues at clinics, in the workplace, in communities, via the local radio and in schools. She said that areas to focus on will include nutrition and diet, parenting, lifestyle such as exercise, alcohol and smoking, and sexual health. The department has been conducting health campaigns for some time now, and feels that this is the right way forward.

Health will be promoted in schools so that children will be aware of health issues affecting the people of the Island. A school nurse will be allocated to the Education Department and Community Nurses will continue to work with schools.

Plans are now in the pipeline to expand on activities performed in the clinics. The department has plans to train some nurses as nurse practitioners, whereby they will assist the doctors by seeing the patients first. Currently doctors see all patients, but Ivy explained that elsewhere it is common practice that patients with minor problems are seen by a highly trained nurse in the first instance. The nurse then decides whether the patient needs to be seen by a doctor. As a result of this, doctors will have fewer patients, and will be able to dedicate more quality time to particular needs. This will not and cannot happen over night because there is a lot that needs to be done by way of getting staff trained. A computerised patient record system and data networking will also be installed enabling the department to make greater use of computer technology in terms of communications and the flow of information.

Dental Clinics will also be taken into the community.

Tele-medicine is high on the agenda and will be vital to doctors/surgeons, should the need arise, to get advice from specialists overseas whilst performing surgical operations. The project will provide equipment for the operating theatre such as video cameras and monitors to facilitate this venture.

Dental health education will also be extended and expanded. "This involves school children, expectant mothers, older people and other high risk groups," said Ivy. Staff will be trained to provide dental health education and the dental section will be equipped with books, posters, pamphlets and videos.

The department aims to continue to provide high quality dental treatment to all who need it, and in order to continue doing this, new equipment will be purchased and staff will receive training.

This is the first of the department’s six objectives and others will be detailed next week.

Public Relations/Information Office

The President of the CPA St Helena Branch, the Honourable John Newman OBE, and the Honourable Member for Sandy Bay, Eric George MBE, departed on the RMS St Helena on Monday 9 June to attend the 34^th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s Regional Conference which will be held in London from 15 to 20 June.

Both delegates have attended CPA conferences in the past.

The CPA invited topics for discussion, and this was discussed by the Elected Members of Legislative Council who form the St Helena Branch of the CPA. As a result the topics put forward included constitutional reform, democratic development and media influences.

As part of the programme a number of workshops will take place on Tuesday 17 and Thursday 19 June. Mr Eric George will speak on Media influences.

At the conference, they will also be discussing the Regional Constitution of the entire Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

Founded in 1911, the CPA’s stated purpose is to promote knowledge and understanding of constitutional, legislative, economic, social and cultural systems within a parliamentary democratic framework.

Following the conference, the two delegates will remain in the UK for an additional week to meet and have discussions with officials from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department For International Development. They will return to St Helena on 27 June.

The St Helena Government’s Housing Assistance Policy was recently reviewed and people are now able to get a loan up to £18,000 if they are living on Island or working on the RMS, or £12,000 if they are offshore. Previously one could get up to £16,000 if they were on Island or the RMS and £10,000 if they were offshore.

In February 2002, Councillor Cyril Gunnell put forward a motion: "That this House supports the Government’s intention to further review its Housing Assistance Policy."

At that sitting Councillor Gunnell said: "Yesterday in this House, Mr Speaker, reference was made to staff attrition. Is it not a well known fact, Sir, that many people have left the Island for offshore employment so that they may be better able to afford a house or even to complete building a house or to furnish it. One of the problems is that they are not able to borrow sufficient money to complete a house and the building is therefore left unfinished." He went on to say that it had been suggested that people be allowed to borrow larger amounts with easier repayments. Councillor Gunnell also explained that: "In recent years, costs for building, improving, repairing or extending a house, have risen dramatically." The motion was carried, and 15 months later, larger loans were agreed.

"The system does work," said Councillor Gunnell, "If you take a Motion to the House and you follow it through you can get success." He said that after receiving concerns from members of the public, he did some background research, put the Motion to the House and followed it up from time to time with SHG to see if progress was being made. "I’m glad that the Motion has had some success" said Councillor Gunnell and added that he is "happy with the outcome."

Councillor Gunnell said that with larger loans available, less people should have to go offshore in order to get their house completed. He is also hoping that, in time, interest rates on loans will decrease. He said that the Housing Assistance Policy will now be reviewed on an annual basis.

After resolutions are made in the House, SHG gives serious consideration to what is being said. The relevant departments are then brought on board to take certain matters forward.

In the case of increasing the housing loans, the Financial Secretary Bob Dolan was responsible for taking the matter forward. He has been working towards getting an increase in housing loans and said that he was pleased that Executive Council approved this.

Following a tender process, High-Point Rendel has been awarded the contract to undertake a comprehensive review of sea access arrangements for St Helena.

The contract was awarded to High-Point Rendel by the Department For International Development and the St Helena Government.

The review has just commenced in the UK, and a three-person team will visit the Island from 16 to 23 July. The team will work closely with the Government Economist and other Government officials.

The purpose of this study is to review how SHG can maximise the benefits to the Island of the RMS by, for example, changing the scheduling arrangements, including new ports of call, reconfiguring the ship, and other sea access operations, which may be pursued. The study is tasked to review SHG’s current institutional framework for management of the ship’s operators and to examine options for freight carriage once an airport has opened.

The results of the review should be known later this year and will be taken into consideration when planning future shipping arrangements. This review will form a blue print for the Island’s future as alternative arrangements for shipping will have to be made once the airport comes into being.

High-Point Rendel has worked with the St Helena Government in the past, having produced the Comparative Study of Air and Sea Access and having worked more recently on the rock-fall protection study of Jamestown.

Discussions continue within the St Helena Government and with DFID on the Island’s six overarching strategic objectives that were agreed following the round of public consultation held earlier this year.

Strategic planning is new to St Helena, and Members of Legislative Council and Heads of Department are all involved in the process. "DFID are positive about the process, focusing attention as it does on the key issues affecting the Island’s future" said Government Economist, Adrian Green.

A document titled "Strategic Planning for St Helena: The Way Ahead" has been agreed by Executive Council and outlines how St Helena is to finalise the plan to achieve the objectives. The document makes provision for working groups to be formed to take the process forward in time to influence negotiations with DFID later this year. These groups will include Councillors, Officials and, for some of the groups, representatives from the private sector.

As is normal every year the 13 SHG Departments will prepare their forward plans, but this time putting together their budgets and business plans in such a way that they will clearly reflect what is needed to achieve the strategic objectives.

Six Strategic Objective Groups will be formed. These groups will look at how departments and all Island bodies can focus budgets and activities to demonstrate that the Island is working to achieve the objectives

A Resource Group will look at all proposals from the Strategic Objectives Groups and the Departmental Business Plans with a view to pulling these ideas together. This group will make sure that DFID are presented with a single cohesive proposal for future funding.

And a Steering Group will ensure that progress is being made and will review draft proposals from the Resource Group and finalise a draft strategy for Executive Councils approval.

"The Strategic Planning process is seen as vital by DFID who are visiting the Island this week to look at our needs" said the Government Economist. A further visit is planned for October to negotiate the three year aid plan.

Commenting, Adrian said "the various working groups are going to have to work hard to think through how St Helena can overcome the current situation, and move forward with confidence."

On Thursday 5 June at 3pm, a number of Councillors and Heads of Department visited the Red Hill Water Treatment Plant as part of World Environment Day.

The United Nations decided that the theme this year would be "Water – Two Billion People are dying for it!"

The Environment Week Working Group planned a range of activities for the week, and at the Red Hill treatment Plant, visitors received a presentation on water treatment and other water issues on St Helena as well as a guided tour of the facilities at the plant.

Isabel Peters, Environmental Coordinator from the Development and Economic Planning Department welcomed all who were present, and read out the message from the United Nations Environment Programme’s Executive Director for World Environment Day. She then handed over to Governor Hollamby who commented on the fact that 99% of the Islands population has a piped water supply. "We take it for granted that every time we turn our taps on we expect water," he said. He then asked the Senior Engineer, Water to explain the system.

Cyril George, Senior Engineer, Water from the Public Works and Services Department gave a detailed presentation on water issues on St Helena and provided some interesting statistics. He also answered questions from the invited guests. The presentation allowed those present to see the amount of work which goes on behind the scenes, to ensure that people have running water.

The event concluded at just after 4pm.

6 June 2003