Local News

Members of the Social Security Board visited Adriana Richardson of North Hill on the occasion of her 98th birthday on Wednesday, May 28th.

Two hotels in Anguillla and the island as a destination have won Readers’ Choice Awards from Caribbean Travel and Life of Orlando, Florida, the only US magazine completely dedicated to promoting the Caribbean.

Many of Anglec’s employees were exposed to a one day training session on ‘Metering Systems’ co-ordinated by Elster/ABB Engineers at the Paradise Cove Hotel on Monday 26th May, 2003. This was done to update employees regarding changes in metering technology which are taking place in the electricity industry.

The Anguilla House of Assembly passed the Telecommunications Act 2003 on Tuesday, May 27, the first real step towards the liberalisation process allowing other providers of service to come on the scene.

Anguilla’s Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming has told the Regional Caribbean Seminar of the United Nations Special Committee of 24 on Decolonisation that the issue of self-determination had never been a question of if, but rather of how and when this island should completely and constitutionally embrace that principle.

Retired Methodist Minister, Reverend John A. Gumbs, has called for a United Nations presence in Anguilla and other islands if it wants to succeed in bridging the gap between non-self-governing territories and the administering powers.

A pleasant and open area of land north-east of Wallblake Airport has now been prepared for the construction of three more replacement buildings for residents as construction work on the expansion of the runway draws near.

Plans are shaping up for the introduction of the new health plan involving the establishment of an autonomous body to run the medical and health services of Anguilla which have been carried out by Government over the years with much difficulty.

Vice President of the Optimist Club in Anguilla, Stanley Reid, has claimed that the youth in the island are to a great extent demonstrating the negative behaviour of adults, but at a more extreme level.

A new system of national awards for deserving Anguillians is under consideration and is expected to commence next year. The last four in the present series will be presented on Anguilla Day, 2003 to nationals for their contribution to the Anguilla Revolution.
The new system being planned is aimed at both upgrading awards and increasing the categories of persons to be honoured.

Some 60 delegates representing non-self-governing territories in the Caribbean and outside the region, met in Anguilla May 20-22 at Paradise Cove Resort. The occasion was the Caribbean Regional Seminar on Advancing the Decolonisation Process in the Caribbean and Bermuda. It was held by the United Nations Special Committee of 24 on Decolonisation with the approval and support of the British Government.

The Jamaican media was filled with praise for Anguillian lawyer, Miss Bernice Lake, QC, who delivered two scholarly presentations earlier this month in Jamaica. The first was at a forum on defamation laws, press freedom and the public interest, organised by the Mona School of Business of the University of the West Indies and the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communications. The title of her presentation was “The Public Right to Know and Individual Right to Privacy – Should Public Officials Stand on the Same Platform as Private Citizens?”

The holding of the Caribbean Regional Seminar of the United Nations Special Committee of 24 on Decolonisation, in Anguilla, has been described as a major development for the island. That view has been expressed by St. Thomas-based Dr. Carlyle Corbin, an adviser to the Anguilla Constitutional and Electoral Reform Committee.

Wallblake Airport is to be lengthened to six thousand feet, 400 more feet beyond the length previously decided on but with no additional cost in construction. That’s the latest information which was revealed at a press conference on Tuesday. It was held by Kenn Banks, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Infrastructure, Fritz Smith, Airport Project Manager and Marcel Fahie, Permanent Secretary, Economic Development.

Second Nominated Member, with an independent voice in the Anguilla House of Assembly, Claudel Romney, has drawn comparisons between Brimegin and Wallblake, the two airport development sites on the island, and has concluded that in reality Wallblake is the obvious choice.

A call has been made for a fully-functional Youth Development Office in Anguilla. It has come from Tonya Carter, the island’s CARICOM Youth Ambassador. She highlighted the need for such a facility while responding to an address by Leader of the Opposition, Hubert Hughes, during the welcome ceremony for the Torch of Unity Run Celebration on May 10.

With a chorus of horns, a motorcade led by Government and Opposition members in Anguilla made its way from Wallblake Airport on Saturday May 10 through the Valley area to the Teachers’ Resource Centre as part of the CARICOM Torch of Unity Run Celebration.

St. Mary’s Chapter of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew earned much commendation on Sunday May 11 when its members prepared and served the 2003 Mother’s Day Brunch at the much-decorated ground floor of the Scouts and Guides Ruthwill Auditorium.
The women, accompanied by some of their children, were fresh from the nearby St. Mary’s Anglican Church where the Mother’s Day sermon was preached by the Reverend Richard Fahie during which he spoke highly about the role and qualities of good women. Without deliberately doing so, he set the stage for the after-church honour and sumptuous feeding which the devoted men in the kitchen were preparing to dish out to the women.

The investigation into the violent death of Jamida Webster of Island Harbour is now continuing with the assistance of two United Kingdom detectives who arrived in Anguilla on May 12 and 13.

At the invitation of the United Kingdom Government, the Government of Anguilla accepted the offer to host a Conference of the United Nations Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, popularly called the Committee of 24.