Ascension : Ascension Island Council Meeting (27/10/08)
Submitted by The Islander (Juanita Brock) 01.11.2008 (Article Archived on 15.11.2008)

The first meeting with the recently elected Island Council was held on Monday 27 October immediately after the Councillors were sworn in by His Excellency the Governor, Andrew Gurr, who was on Ascension to meet the new Councillors and to chair the first meeting of the new Council. The Governor welcomed the new Councillors and before getting down to the lengthy agenda awaiting them, said a few words about the role of a Council.

Ascension Island Council Meeting

Monday 27th October 2008

The first meeting with the recently elected Island Council was held on Monday 27 October immediately after the Councillors were sworn in by His Excellency the Governor, Andrew Gurr, who was on Ascension to meet the new Councillors and to chair the first meeting of the new Council. The Governor welcomed the new Councillors and before getting down to the lengthy agenda awaiting them, said a few words about the role of a Council.

A Council invariably faces difficult choices and in doing so needs to get the balance right between sometimes conflicting needs and priorities. The advice it then gives the Governor carries considerable weight – save in certain circumstances the Governor is required to accept the advice of the Council.

Not to do so should be an unusual event that would have to be justified to the Secretary of State. The Governor encouraged the Council to meet in caucus, in other words on its own without accompanying officials, whenever it wanted to discuss issues and prepare the ground prior to the formal Council meetings. At the same time it might wish to hold informal council meetings together with the Administrator and Finance Director to brainstorm issues.

The first item on the agenda was the draft new Constitution for Ascension, St Helena and Tristan da Cunha. The existing document is out dated and felt to be inadequate.

The world has changed since it was written – there are now important Human Rights measures that already apply to the islands but which do not appear in the Constitution. A team of FCO experts on constitutional matters will be visiting Ascension from 17-18 November to meet the Council and will also hold public meetings. Councillors asked questions about measures that specifically don’t apply to Ascension in the draft. The Governor encouraged them to consider the draft Constitution ahead of the FCO visit to resolve any questions.

The Governor then turned to the long list of other agenda items that will need to be discussed and considered over the coming months. It was difficult to have substantive discussion about these items as it wasn’t possible to provide papers ahead of Councillors taking their oaths, but the opportunity was taken to have a preliminary discussion and ask any immediate questions.

The first of these concerned the state of AIG’s finances. The audited Financial Statements for the last financial year 2007/ 2008 were due to be published shortly.  A summary was made available to Councillors and this showed that for the first time AIG had ended the year in deficit, with a need to draw on the limited cash reserve.  This was the result of a disputed property tax payment by the MOD, but also some unexpected and very high medical costs.

Without the disputed property tax payment, which is shown as a bad debt in the accounts, the financial statements would have reflected a modest surplus. Negotiations continue between senior officials in the MOD and FCO to try to resolve the property tax issue. But it was clear from the figures that there is an underlying problem of falling income and rising costs, which is making AIG’s financial position unsustainable.

Councillors suggested that the Falklands Islands should be paying something towards the cost of running Ascension Island since they benefit from the Air-bridge operation that is supported here. It was also noted that as a result of VT Communications’ plan for new, modern transmitters which consume less energy, together with their plans to install wind generators, there was likely to be a rise in utility prices for other users as well as a significant decrease in fuel tax as a result of importing less diesel for their generating station.

As a Finance Committee is required, a vote took place among the Councillors to decide who would sit on this. The result was that Kitty George, Ann Miller and Howard Peters would sit on this committee, chaired by the Director for Financial Services.

Talk of finance and un-sustainability led us into a brief overview of the Cooper Report. This was a report commissioned by AIG several months ago to look into the structure of government, and was written by Chris Cooper of the National School of Government.  The report has not been actioned as it was thought more appropriate for an elected Council to consider and decide on which, if any, of the recommendations in the report might best be pursued. The Cooper Report is a detailed document that Councillors will take away with them to consider properly. Council will need to consider fundamental issues such as whether a given service should actually be delivered by Government, or whether there is a more efficient way to do so. It was agreed that the Administrator, together with the Director of Technical Services, would host an away day with Council at the Residency in the very near future to brainstorm the issues raised.

The next item concerned a report prepared by Litmus Partnership Ltd, food hygiene consultants, into the safe storage, preparation and display of foodstuffs at retail premises on the island. This followed reports of outbreaks of food poisoning and issues raised about the sale of items that were past their sell-by date, or which may have defrosted in transit and been refrozen, perhaps more than once. Councillors felt that some form of regulation was necessary to protect the public from the risks inherent in these practices and there was some discussion about whether existing laws on St Helena and the UK might provide a model. At the same time, and as indicated in the report itself, there is recognition that training may be needed in safe food handling. It was agreed that more work was needed to be done on this subject, once Councillors had had a proper chance to consider the report in full.

Council then turned to the question of Liquor Licensing. I think everyone was surprised to learn that there are no laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol to minors here.

It was acknowledged that self-regulation and the fact that retail operators and the clubs know who the children are, and wouldn’t sell to them, works to some extent. However the feeling was that we shouldn’t rely entirely on this, and that some form of law should be put in place. It was agreed that Crown Counsel would draft something for Council to consider.

Discussion then moved on to the question of renting property outside of a work contract. This had been considered earlier in the year by the old Advisory Group, in the absence of a Council, and the previous Administrator had researched the likely costs to someone who brought their spouse and children to Ascension while their employer only met single accommodation costs.

These figures suggested that it would be prohibitively expensive to all but the highest earners, and that allowing this might be unfair to others. Councillors suggested that some people on single status contracts might like to be able to bring their families for just a short period, perhaps one or two months, with a possibly much smaller group interested in a longer term arrangement.

Councillors thought this worth exploring further to see if it can be made to work, notwithstanding the obstacles, including short supply of housing that might be made available for this purpose.

Councillors then looked at one or two minor anomalies that had arisen out of the new Land and Business Policy. One of the issues raised concerned beach huts, some of which had been constructed by individuals at their own expense. The issue was that on expiry of the permit to occupy the beach hut, it would revert to AIG. Some current permit holders felt this unfair and wanted to be able to pass on to friends, family etc. It was agreed to look into this to see if there was a way to allow this for the beach huts in question, while remaining within the constraints of the overall policy of not owning property on Ascension. The question of the level of property tax on certain houses occupied by small business permit holders was also raised; some of the fees charged seemed very high and it was agreed that this would be looked into.

The last item on the agenda concerned draft enabling legislation for the protection of marine wrecks. If passed this would allow orders to be put into place to prohibit divers from removing artefacts from wrecks within Ascension’s waters, and allow for restricted and prohibited areas to be designated.

Councillors agreed that the current situation whereby we were powerless to stop visitors taking artefacts from wrecks and exporting them as souvenirs was wrong, and should be addressed. It was therefore agreed that the draft enabling legislation should go forward.

This was a long meeting with a lot of detailed issues that Councillors will need to study the papers on and discuss further before bringing back to Council. Before the meeting closed there was brief discussion under Any Other Business of items that Councillors would like to place on a future agenda. These included issues facing small businesses and levels of property tax, the state of the roads, and the question of taxing holiday payments.

The date for the next meeting was set as Wednesday 26th November at 1630 in the Council Chamber. The Governor will be present via the video conferencing link.

Ross Denny

Administrator

28 October 2008