Setback for Island airport
December 9, 2008 12:00 AM
Colchester MP Bob Russell has strongly criticised the Government for failing to give the go-ahead for an airport on the remote Island of St Helena. Mr Russell is Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Island of St Helena Group. The island, in the South Atlantic, shares its name with Colchester's Patron Saint.
Plans are at an advanced stage and there was every expectation that the award of the contract to build it was imminent - but it has now been announced that there is "a pause in negotiations", prompting Mr Russell to say that he believed that "the dead hand of the Treasury is responsible for the betrayal of this loyal Overseas Dependent Territory" which has been under the British flag for more than 400 years.
He said: "The stark reality is that the airport project has been halted. The use of the word pause is meaningless. My job is to persuade Parliamentary colleagues to get the British Government to honour what it has promised for many years, namely the construction of the airport."
Around 5,000 people live on St Helena. It takes a week by boat to get there from South Africa. Mr Russell visited the Island in 1999.
Mr Russell is recognised as being the Island's leading advocate in the British Parliament, and has constantly pressed the case for an airport. He explained: "The people of St Helena, and the Government of the Island of St Helena, know that the construction of an airport is crucial for the Island's economic future."
The Secretary of State for Overseas Development, the Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP, revealed in a Written Ministerial Statement that there was "a pause in negotiations over the St Helena Airport project." This has prompted Mr Russell to Table a Parliamentary Motion which "calls on the British Government to proceed with the award of a contract for the construction of an airport on the Island of St Helena without further delay." He said that he would be seeking to raise the matter in the House of Commons.
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