Falklands : Executive Council Report for January 2006
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 31.01.2006 (Article Archived on 14.02.2006)
Find out about Executive Council decisions taken in January.
GOVERNOR’S REPORT ON THE MEETING OF EXECUTIVE COUNCIL ON THURSDAY 26 JANUARY 2006
Executive Council met on Thursday 26 January at Government House for its first meeting of 2006.
We considered three issues connected with the coastal shipping service and the introduction of the new ferry service.
The first concerned the charges which are levied on the Tamar for berthing at FIPASS. Hitherto the Tamar has been charged an annual lump sum of £2,310 for this purpose, but this charge was acknowledged to be too high in relation to the actual usage of the berth at FIPASS. It was therefore agreed that the lump sum charge should be withdrawn and that the standard berthing charge for vessels using FIPASS should be applied, backdated to 1 July 2003.
As for the proposed ferry service, members of ExCo attached importance to the interim ferry service being introduced without further delay. It will therefore start on 17 February. Rates for the interim ferry service were agreed. Further details of the new service, together with arrangements for regular 6-weekly calls to the three main cargo points on West Falkland as well as to the islands and the two West Falklands ports currently not connected to the road network, were announced in a press release published by the Falkland Islands Development Corporation on 26 January. It was further agreed that tenders should be invited for the coastal shipping service, incorporating the ferry service, with a new contract to operate from 1 November 2006.
Finally, it was agreed that a new road should be constructed from Port Howard settlement to Second Creek, the latter to be the terminal on West Falkland for the long term ferry service in due course. The intention is that this road should be built during the winter months, and thereby avoid interference with the existing road-building programme on West Falkland.
Falkland Islands Government agreed some years ago that, subject to the availability of finance, it would fund the construction of two houses per annum at Mount Pleasant Complex in order to provide additional married quarters. Executive Council discussed the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding setting out the respective responsibilities of FIG and British Forces South Atlantic Islands in this respect. Subject to the incorporation in the text of a number of comments made during the ExCo discussion, a final version of the Memorandum of Understanding will be signed in due course by the Governor and Commander British Forces.
Executive Council discussed the future of the Dairy, and in particular the requirement for additional capital investment. Executive Council acknowledged the need for additional investment in the Dairy in order to ensure that it had a viable future, and decided that in the first instance the costs of this investment should be met by FIDC. It was however acknowledged that FIDC might need in due course to revert to Falkland Islands Government for some assistance with this expenditure, when of course a full justification would be required. The new investment is likely to focus on the installation of equipment for the pasteurisation and packaging of milk, in order to facilitate the future sale of milk to the military community at MPA as well as to the civilian community in Stanley.
Approval was given by ExCo in the second half of 2004 to the waste heat recovery scheme. The object of this scheme is to make more efficient use of the heat generated by the power station, in particular to provide heating at the Falkland Islands Community School and the King Edward Memorial Hospital. The benefits of the scheme lie in the promise of a substantial reduction of fuel consumption by FICS and KEMH. Design work on the scheme has now been completed. This has produced a modified system which, while being more efficient and safer than the original scheme, has a higher capital cost. Nevertheless, the new scheme is expected to pay back its costs within 3.4 years. ExCo agreed that the scheme should remain in the capital programme in its revised form, with a view to completion within the financial year 2006/07, and that additional funding of £242,500 should be included within the capital programme for that year. It was noted that the current calculations for the scheme did not take into account the possible effects of the wind turbine project, in the event of this being approved, and that it might be necessary for this to be factored in in due course.
It may be recalled that a significant restructuring of Stanley Services Ltd has taken place in recent months, and that as part of this process it was proposed that FIG should divest itself of its shares to a holding company, and that shares in the holding company should be made available for sale to the general public in the Falkland Islands. Executive Council considered a paper by the Chief Executive reviewing the decision to sell FIG shares in Stanley Services Ltd, and concluded that it was appropriate to proceed with this process and that the next stage – the establishment of the so-called HoldCo – should now be carried out.
There has been much public discussion, in the context of the construction of the new road to Murrell Farm, of the management of the land in the Murrell area. ExCo considered a second draft of the Murrell area management plan. Subject to some small amendments, the draft was approved. The final version will be published shortly. It was noted that it would be important to keep the Plan under regular review.
Many Falkland Islanders will be aware that my distinguished predecessor, Mr David Tatham, is currently in the Islands carrying out research in the Archives in connection with his work on the Dictionary of Falkland Islands Biography. Noting that FIG supported this project and had indeed already donated some £1,200 in connection with the preparation of the Dictionary, Executive Council agreed to waive the normal search fees which would otherwise be incurred by Mr Tatham in relation to searches in the births, deaths and marriages registers,.
Executive Council addressed a wide range of issues connected with new legislation. Approval was given to a paper from the Attorney General reviewing his priorities for the preparation of new legislation.
Four Bills were approved for submission to Legislative Council: the Criminal Justice (Amendment) (Miscarriages of Justice) Bill, which provides for the payment of compensation to a person convicted of a criminal offence in a case where the conviction had been reversed or a pardon given on the ground that a new or newly discovered fact showed conclusively that there had been a miscarriage of justice; the Planning (Amendment) Bill, which makes public officers eligible for appointment as members of the Planning Committee; and the Family Law Bill and (closely related to it) the Land Charges (Amendment) Bill, the collective effect of which is to confer rights on spouses and partners in the family home in situations where they do not have any ownership and who are the victims of domestic violence or who are deserted by their former spouse or partner. In agreeing that the latter two Bills should be submitted to Legislative Council, members of Executive Council noted that LegCo might decide to establish a Select Committee to consider the issues involved in these two Bills in detail.
It was also agreed that the Road Traffic Bill should be published in the Gazette for public consultation and that a working party, consisting of two Councillors, the Acting Chief Police Officer, a representative of the Justices of the Peace and the Attorney General, should be established to consider the consultation draft of the Road Traffic Bill. The working party will sit in public. This is a long and very comprehensive Bill consisting of some 274 Sections and 9 Schedules. Its purpose is to consolidate and, where appropriate, modernise the road traffic law in a single piece of legislation.
Executive Council also considered the possibility of introducing a new Bill to deal with licensing law. It was agreed that the Bill should make provision for the Governor in Council to be the authority for fixing licensing hours – a role currently undertaken by the Justices of the Peace. The reason for this was that it was felt that decisions on licensing hours were a ‘political’ matter and had implications for a range of other policy issues – eg policing resources and social policy. It was agreed that the drafting of the Licensing Bill should be undertaken with a view to its coming into force on 1 June 2007.
Executive Council considered a paper submitted by the Attorney General which addressed the issue of maternity rights. The paper pointed out that the rights available to a pregnant woman in employment were significantly less extensive in the Falkland Islands than they were in the UK. The Attorney General’s paper identified a number of respects in which the provisions in Falklands law might be extended. Without taking a view on the substance of these points, Executive Council agreed that the issues identified by the Attorney General should be the subject of public consultation. Following public consultation, the results will be considered by Executive Council, when members will decide whether it is appropriate to prepare new legislation in this area.
Falkland Islands. Executive Council noted a paper prepared by the Director of Civil Aviation which brought members up to date with developments in this area and identified some of the possible costs involved in bringing these changes about.
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