Falklands : Falklands Executive Council Report (23/05/07)
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 30.05.2007 (Article Archived on 13.06.2007)
Executive Council met at Government House on 23 May 2007.
PRESS RELEASE
Summary of Executive Council Meeting 23rd May 2007
Given that the final meetings of Budget Select Committee took place this month, only urgent items were considered by Executive Council.
Draft Finance and Appropriation bills were considered and referred to Legislative Council under certificates of urgency, and following the deliberations of Budget Select Committee, these were passed in Legislative Council on Friday 25th May. Supplementary Appropriation (2006-2007) Bill 2007, which makes provision for a sum of £357,000 to be appropriated from the Consolidation Fund was also referred to Legislative Council and was subsequently passed. The detail pertaining to these bills has been reported on through Legislative Council and is not repeated here.
Executive Council considered a paper on remuneration for councillors. Following a decision by the Select Committee on the Constitution with regard to the provision of salaries for Councillors, the Chief Executive was tasked with establishing a group to consider possible options to accomodate fully paid Councillors. Given that the group established has had very little time to thoroughly consider the matter, Council decided that they would not make budgetary provision at this stage, rather it would consider the complete proposal when it arrives and any funding requirement would be dealt with through supplementary appropriation which was deemed to be a more transparent method.
Results of the tender process for the disposal of building plots at Lellman Way and Goss Road were considered and Council approved disposal of the plots to the highest bidders.
A number of legislative papers were considered. The first was the Firearms and Ammunition (Amendment) Bill 2007. The purpose of this bill is to regulate the importation and provision of firearms. A number of firearms are already prohibited, but this amendment makes it possible for the Governor to prescribe specific types of weapons and firearms which would be prohibited for the purposes of the Ordinance which do not fall within the current definition. Examples of such weapons would be pump action shotguns. Whilst Council is not in the habit of recommending rapid reactionary legislation, it was felt that there needed to be some ability to control such weapons. A further paper will be considered by Executive Council on possible implications of making such orders as will be now be possible.
Following a second round of public consultation the Working Group on the Road Traffic Bill 2007, submitted a summary of policy recommendations to Executive Council. Some of these recommendations are new, some amended and some unchanged from the first draft. Rather than go through every recommendation, this report will report on a selection of approved recommendations. Council accepted that the use of hand-held radio microphones should not be prohibited; regulations requiring children under 16 years of age to wear cycling helmets should be drafted (regulations will not be extended to include others); the parking of heavy commercial vehicles (including all motor vehicles and trailers) on verges and footways should be prohibited, with exempted areas listed and provision for an exemption by a police officer in uniform made (for example on Remembrance Sunday); permission for children under 11 years to cycle on footways and all cyclists to cycle on footpaths subject to the requiring the cyclist to yield priority to pedestrians be made; no provision should be made for an MOT type compulsory vehicle test, Council believe that the provisions of the existing powers will be sufficient; as a result of Council previously rejecting the provision for removing licences from drivers of a certain age, a second option was considered and accepted. There will be a requirement for a medical check for drivers of any age who are carrying passengers for hire or public award including buses, coaches, minibuses and taxis, the frequency of these tests will increase after the age of 45 years. Council will give further consideration to the inclusion of private hire vehicles following research into how to manage this issue. Council agreed that the proposal for special permits (in relation to the effect of order of disqualification) should not be proceeded with, but did direct the working group to continue researching group insurance and associated issues. Council agreed that all motor vehicles in the Falkland Islands except those owned by the Crown in right of the United Kingdom will be required to be registered. However only vehicles that are used or kept on a road will be required to be taxed (with the previous exemption in place), ie no tax is required to be paid on vehicles only used on undesignated roads. Council also decided that tax on trailers should not be required unless prescribed by regulation (only those used for commercial use). Provision of tax for periods of two and one month will also be made. Following completion of the amendments made in this paper a redrafted bill will come to Executive Council for referral to Legislative Council in due course.
The making of the British Nationality Ordinance (Amendment of Schedule) Order 2007, was also approved by Council. This amendment allows the Falkland Island Government to recover the fees for applications such as those for naturalisation as a British Citizen. These fees are currently collected by the UK Home Office whilst the FIG Immigration Department undertakes the processing and forwarding of the applications.
The British Government has requested that the 1977 European Convention on the suppression of terrorism, as amended by its 2003 amending Protocol, together with any connected International Counter-Terrorism Treaties, be extended to all UK Overseas Territories. Given the significant amount of resource required to first assess current legislative provision and secondly to make the necessary amendments, in order to comply with this request, Council was minded to agree in principle to the extension of this Convention to include the Falkland Islands. If the UK Government would like to see full compliance more rapidly than is possible for us to deliver we have invited them to provide the resource to facilitate the process.
Council gave approval for Keith Alazia to be appointed to the Transport Advisory Committee, as the East Falkland representative for a period of two years and for Raymond Evans to remain on the Committee for a further year. This staged approach to changing members was accepted in order to retain continuity.
Two matters of any other business were also considered by Executive Council. The first was a request from Falklands Conservation regarding the provision of car parking spaces in the Jetty Centre car park, whilst these can be provided by the FITB on an annual basis, long term provision can only be made by FIG who own the car park. Council decided to make this provision in order that the outstanding criteria set by the planning and building committee can be met, and the application processed. The second matter was a request for additional sizes of the commemorative Liberation Coin to be made available. This was request was accepted.
This concludes the Executive Council summary for May 2007.
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