Government betrays Islanders, says MP

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 6th May 2009

Residents on the tiny Island of St Helena in the South Atlantic - a British Overseas Territory which shares its name with Colchester's Patron Saint - have been betrayed by the British Government. That was the damning charge made in the House of Commons by Colchester MP Bob Russell who is Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Island of St Helena Group.

Mr Russell strongly criticised the Government during a debate on Overseas Territories, of which there are 14 left over from the days of the British Empire. The population of St Helena is less than 5,000 and is dependent on financial support from the British Government. It can only be reached by sea, a journey of a week from South Africa or three days from Ascension Island which is a stop-over for RAF flights between the UK and the Falklands.

Plans to make St Helena economically self-sufficient centre around the construction of an airport, and plans were at a very advanced stage with a contract about to be awarded to build it when late last year the Government called a halt. Mr Russell said that without the airport then the Island had no economic future, but the remaining population would still need to be subsidised by the British taxpayer whereas with an airport the Island would not need any subsidy.

Liberal Democrat Mr Russell told fellow MPs: "All the evidence points to the fact that the airport would quickly transform the Island from being a net recipient of aid to being self-sufficient within a decade. Doing nothing is the Government's option, and it is a very expensive option."

He explained that a further ten years of subsidy, including the cost of sea access by the RMS St Helena which is coming to the end of its life, would cost the same as building an airport - and in ten years' time the Government of the day would be faced with choosing either building a by then even more expensive airport or for evermore subsidising sea access and the Island's economy with a replacement vessel.