S.Atlantic : Meeting of the Ascension Island Council on Friday 2nd September 2011
Submitted by SARTMA.com (Juanita Brock) 10.09.2011 (Article Archived on 24.09.2011)

The Ascension Island Council met in formal session on Friday 2nd September at 2pm in the Council Chamber. Councillors Bendall, Cranfield and Lawrence were present. The Governor and Attorney General joined in by the customary telephone link. Councillors George and Thomas were not present.

Meeting of the Ascension Island Council on Friday 2nd September 2011

By Ross Denny, Administrator

07 September 2011

The Ascension Island Council met in formal session on Friday 2nd September at 2pm in the Council Chamber. Councillors Bendall, Cranfield and Lawrence were present. The Governor and Attorney General joined in by the customary telephone link. Councillors George and Thomas were not present.

The minutes of the meeting held on 5 August were confirmed.

Under matters arising I reported to Council that I had written to Solomon’s, the Obsidian and Cable & Wireless to see if they would be interested in providing passport photographs as a business opportunity. Councillors had attended a meeting recently with the Chief Executive of Cable & Wireless to discuss possible improvements to the broadband packages and a further meeting will be requested shortly to continue discussions.

I was also able to report to Councillors that the organizers of the Human Rights training, delayed from earlier in the year because of the volcanic ash cloud disruption to flights, was back on for November, and would this time also offer training on rights and obligations to employers on the island.

The first substantive item was a proposal to restrict the importation of petrol vehicles and equipment. The RAF had given the island five years’ notice back in 2005 that it would no longer be bringing petrol to the island from 2010. Since then a decision had been taken by the UK and US military to extend the life of the petrol tank in order to provide time for the US base to convert its vehicle fleet to diesel only. This will be achieved by 2020 at the latest. There will thereafter be no petrol supplies and it is important that everyone, individuals and employers, start planning for this development.

It is therefore proposed that the Customs Regulations be used to make provision for a permit system. Under this system no consent will be given to import petrol vehicles, nor any equipment that runs on petrol unless it can be demonstrated that no alternative equipment exists to meet the need. This will help ensure over the period of time remaining to us that we are much better prepared for the day petrol stops coming to the island, and don’t add to the problem by allowing yet more petrol vehicles to be brought in. It was agreed that there needed to be a public awareness campaign to get the message across.

Councillor Bendall asked the Governor if the St Helena Line would consider offering a subsidised shipping rate for those vehicle owners who still have roadworthy petrol cars on island when petrol supplies run out, and who wish to return their cars to St Helena. This led to a discussion about the future arrangements for shipping freight between the two islands after the planned airport is operational. This will need to be looked into carefully.

The next item concerned the rules on disqualification of certain public service officers from standing as a Councillor. The current list contains an error with a position that no longer exists (Corporate Finance Manager) still being on the list, and there was a question about whether it was appropriate for certain of those listed to remain disqualified from office in this way. It was agreed following discussions that the Postmistress and Dentist no longer needed to be on the list. The rest remain on the list, and therefore disqualified. Discussion then turned to the draft Workers’ Protection Ordinance 2011. This would replace the existing employment legislation that dates back to 1926. Not surprisingly that legislation is now somewhat out of date. The new legislation will not only modernize the language and approach, but offer better protection to workers by introducing an offence of Unfair Dismissal, with the possibility of compensation where the employer is proven to have dismissed someone in unfair circumstances, for example by not following its disciplinary procedures. Councillors were in favour of the draft legislation which will now be tidied up by the legal experts before coming back to Council, and consulting on.

Council then considered a proposal to set a rate for tax on business profits. This is currently set at zero, and businesses pay property tax. However one of the recommendations in the recent FCO led review is to scrap Property Tax and replace it with a Headcount tax or levy for the major employing organizations and tax on the profits of businesses. More work is required on this still but a new rate will be set in time for ending of Property tax at the end of the financial year.  This is thought likely to be beneficial to small businesses.

Next was the matter of representation at the Overseas Territories Consultative Council, or OTCC, in London in November this year. Councillor George had agreed to go and this was supported by all Councillors present. This is an important annual event in which the overseas territories’ political bodies are all represented, as well as Governors, Administrators, and the FCO Minister for the OTs.

Under Any Other Business it was noted that the Air Seychelles contract to run the South Atlantic Airbridge had sadly ended. Titan Air would take over from them.

This was both my and the Governor’s last formal Council meeting before we depart, me on the 9th and the Governor later in September on the RMS sailing to the UK. At this stage I was unable to provide Councillors with news of arrangements for covering my duties prior to my substantive replacement, Colin Wells, arriving on 27 October. There will be a separate announcement on this.

The meeting closed at 15:05.