MP welcomes St. Helena Airport announcement
July 22, 2010 11:58 AM
Colchester MP Bob Russell is celebrating success after a ten-year Parliamentary campaign to get agreement to build an airport on the remote Island of St Helena, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic.
It was announced this morning at the House of Commons that the new Coalition Government had agreed in principle to build the airport - a project which the last Labour Government halted two years' ago just as contracts were about to be signed to start work.
Mr Russell, who has served for many years as Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Island of St Helena Group, said: "This is wonderful news. I know that the Islanders, some 4,000 of them who are proudly British, will be rejoicing. They are currently several days' distance from ship to either Ascension Island or South Africa. An airport will mean they will be only hours from London, and this this will transform the economic viability of the Island and its people."
He added: "Although the airport will be very expensive, in excess of £100 million, over ten to 15 years it will work out cheaper to the taxpayer than the current annual subsidy of around £20 million and the estimated £64 million cost of a replacement Royal Mail Ship which supports the Island.
"Furthermore, an airport will transform the Island from being a recipient of UK taxpayers subsidy to one of economic self-sufficiency through discerning tourism and other economic activity."
This is not the first time that Mr Russell has battled on behalf of the Island, which he visited in 1999 on behalf of the UK Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. He persuaded the last Labour Government, including a direct question to the then Prime Minister Tony Blair, to restore Full British Citizenship to the Islanders which had been removed by the Thatcher Conservative Government.
The Island of St Helena shares its name with Colchester's Patron Saint. In addition, Mr Russell and his wife, and their three children, all attended St Helena Secondary School in Colchester.
By an amazing coincidence, the announcement of the airport came while five Guides and two Guide Leaders from St Helena were sailing on the RMS St Helena to Ascension for an onward RAF flight from the Falklands to Brize Norton to be in the UK for the Centenary celebrations for Guiding. It will take the party nine days to get from St Helena to the UK - a flight from St Helena would be counted in hours.
Mr Russell has raised £2,000 to pay for one of the Guides from the Island to come to the UK. Three years ago he raised a similar sum so that a Scout from St Helena could attend Scouting's Centenary Celebrations held at Hylands Park, Essex. In further support for the Island, Mr Russell raised £500 for the planting of 500 St Helena gumwood trees - in the "Colchester Plantation" - to commemorate in 2002 the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the Island by Portuguese explorers. St Helena was firstly an English colony from the time of Charles the Second and is now one of the 13 remaining British Overseas Territories.
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