S.Atlantic : St Helena EXCO REPORT 61 – 22nd February 2011
Submitted by SARTMA.com (Public Relations Information Office) 23.02.2011 (Article Archived on 09.03.2011)
Not long ago I suggested that we would only need one EXCO per month and now, largely as a result of the pressure created by the MOU, we find that we have to have one every week.
EXCO REPORT 61 – 22nd February 2011
Not long ago I suggested that we would only need one EXCO per month and now, largely as a result of the pressure created by the MOU, we find that we have to have one every week.
Our Land Development Control Plan is dated December 2006 and so is over 4 years’ old. With its appendices it runs to 130 pages plus illustrative maps. It is at present the basis on which decisions are made with regard to the use, and future use, of our limited land resource. That Plan now needs updating and our first Paper dealt with the Revision Principles that will be applied in making that update. Our Physical Urban Planner, David Taylor was present for this and the next Paper.
These principles have already been the subject of public consultation and when they are applied to the Plan in order to amend it shortly there will be two further periods of consultation each lasting 12 weeks. The first re-draft should be available by mid-May and the subsequent one during late August. Thus there will be a substantial amount of time for all who are interested to make comments and representations on these sensitive issues.
There will always be an amount of tension as the right balance is struck between physical development and the environment and between the interests of individual Saints and the prosperity of our economy for the benefit of all. The new objectives covered the needs of both our natural habitat and our built heritage. Tourists and air access are also taken into account as are the requirements of existing and new businesses. One of the key issues is of course the provision of relatively low cost housing for local people. This was not the subject of this particular Paper, but it was mentioned as being relevant to future considerations.
In considering the Paper, we are grateful that Members had in front of them a resume of all the points made during the consultation process which were given serious consideration. The issue is now passed on to the statutory process and a great deal more will be heard on this topic over the coming weeks.
The next paper required less discussion and was recommending a revised fee structure for Outline Development Applications. At present there is no fee but merely a flat rate charge of £15 which does not begin to pay for the amount of work that has to be done in processing. The introduction of fees was agreed.
For our next issue we were joined by Miss Janet Lawrence, our economist. This was yet another Paper that was really setting the scene for further work and it was on the subject of the Elimination of Untargeted Subsidies. I am sure that you are all aware of the effect of an untargeted subsidy: it is actually a waste of public money as it means that in order to help those most in need, we end up helping everyone. For instance, if we fail to increase say electricity charges - that will increase the subsidy for everyone; those who can afford to pay an increase as well as those who can’t. That is obviously far too crude a mechanism and would be more effective if we could target only those who really need that kind of assistance. That is why we believe that more targeted subsidies are the answer.
Now this is a very complicated matter and requires a great deal of thought. The Paper was full of definitions of terms, to make sure that we all understood the issues thoroughly. The concept actually relates strongly to matters like pension and a minimum wage, so once again, a great deal of thinking is going to be applied over the next few weeks.
We had three sets of minutes to approve and comment upon, including the EXCO meeting with the Solomons Board on 10th February, and there was little raised under AOB.
The management accounts up to the end of January were distributed by the Acting Financial Secretary and showed that we have actually been very successful in the current year in collecting more tax than we budgeted. However we have spent more than we estimated on pensions and on overseas medical referrals among other things. Nevertheless we should end the year next month with a surplus in spite of all the stresses and strains on our public purse.
This was a purposeful meeting and we enjoyed a helpful exchange of views on some very relevant topics.
The meeting closed at 12.50 pm.
Andrew Gurr
Governor
22nd February 2011
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