Falklands : The Hon Mr Roger Edwards’ Motion for Adjournment Speech
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 08.06.2011 (Article Archived on 22.06.2011)
Firstly, FIMCO; the abattoir required some not so considerable funding in order that it continued to comply with EU regulation, better animal welfare, better working conditions and a greater volume of freezer capacity.
The Hon Mr Roger Edwards’ Motion for Adjournment Speech
Mr Speaker, Honourable Colleagues, in rising to support the Motion for Adjournment I would like to touch on a few items that are worthy of note.
Firstly, FIMCO; the abattoir required some not so considerable funding in order that it continued to comply with EU regulation, better animal welfare, better working conditions and a greater volume of freezer capacity. In order to make this large sum of money and works required more manageable the project was broken down to three phases, which we will call phases 2, 3, and four. After initial costings for phase 2 were challenged as being too high.
It was decided to project manage in house using local tradesmen for the work. This brought the project price down to an acceptable level. I am delighted to say this approach made the project come in under the new, lower budget and virtually on time. I would like to say congratulations and very well done to all concerned.
This project, to me, proves we have local craftsmen who are completely capable of doing major works; and I believe it will give these firms confidence to take on bigger and better tasks in the future.
Now phases 3 and 4 have been approved and funding provided, I hope and look forward to the same out-turn again.
I would like to say a big thank-you and well done to the team that organised the Landing Day ceremony at San Carlos. This was the first year that this commemorative event has been entirely civilian lead. I regret I was not able to attend but I have been told great things. So very well done
Last week I attended the FIMCO Suppliers’ Working Group and the FIMCO Oversight Board. At both meetings concern was expressed about the state of the roads on West Falkland; and the impact it is having on the supply of animals for the Abattoir. We do not have a huge fund to support the upkeep of our all-weather tracks so we must ensure that every penny spent is put to good use and not wasted as much of it was last year; capping good stretches and forgetting about the bad and downright dangerous areas.
It was with some reluctance that the price of electricity was put up again so quickly after the last price rise. Sadly, we do not control the price of fuel. We are assured a method is now in place such that prices can go down just as quickly as they go up. While fuel prices and electricity prices remain high we must pay special attention to the elderly and infirm in our society, especially as winter draws in to ensure they do not suffer undue hardship.
Speaking of electricity, we must remind ourselves of the input to the Stanley grid from the Wind farm. Without this wind farm prices would be some 7p per unit higher. Without this wind farm, during the recent major problems at the Power Station, Stanley would probably have been suffering black-outs. We must thank Glenn Ross and his dedicated team at the power station for the hard work they all put in to avoid disaster. It was, sadly, the straw that broke the camel’s back, or in this case, caused Glenn to resign from this Assembly. He is sadly missed.
We must also remember our generators are getting older. The spares’ back-up chain is getting longer – over a year for one alternator. We must give serious thought in the not too distant future about purchasing some new engines and possibly a new power station.
I spoke earlier about high fuel prices. I am not convinced that we get the best deal from our monopoly supplier of fuels; and would like to see, once we have Cable & Wireless properly regulated, the same controls put in place with Stanley Services. With the Falkland Islands Government being the largest single shareholder, this should not be too difficult. We do suffer having so many monopolies and if we are to continue with them then we must ensure they are regulated and give the very best deal to the community that their licence requires.
Just a note now for farmers; I have literally not more than 5 minutes before this meeting just been told we have to move all the lime purchased by Government from Colas out of the hanger in which it is being stored. I believe damage has been caused by the present strong winds to another hanger and so it has be be moved. I have passed this message on to Mac MacArthur and hope arrangements can be made to get it moved as soon as possible. But some help from local farms may be required. So I suggest you contact Mac MacArthur.
My Colleague to my left mentioned that we are not getting through to some of the public so I would like to mention that we are, as an Assembly, with officers, attending public meetings on August the 17thn at Goose Green and the following day, August the 18th at Fox Bay. I hope as many people as possible will be able to attend.
We have a by-election in the Stanley constituency shortly and among those who have already declared their hand, I note we have a Camp constituency candidate. We can already stand for either constituency; I would like us to be able to vote in either constituency. In other words, I believe in a single constituency. I do believe the great divide between Camp and Stanley in this day and age is a myth. We regularly have to make decisions on both Camp and Stanley. And I can honestly say I have never once come across any Member being anti-Camp.
Tomorrow I head off to a meeting of the Committee of 24, firstly in St Vincent and then on to New York, where I will be joined by my colleague, Dick Sawle. We take with us some strong arguments and many facts to destroy the Argentine lies. And I know we go with the full support of Falkland Islanders. I hope this year we can make more countries support our freedom and our right of self-determination.
Mr Speaker, I support the Motion for Adjournment.
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