Letters to the Editor

Bill Grandfield
P O Box 1171
The Valley
Anguilla
British West Indies

August 10, 2007

Editor of Anguillian

Sir,

Letters in The Anguillian

I read the letter from Sheridan Smith in The Anguillian of 3 August with interest. It seems that Sheridan is well able to look after himself so I will not enter into that debate. One or two points spring to mind however. If we had proper legislation on the books Sheridan would have a legal forum in which to express his concerns and the Chief Minister would not be drawn into ad-hoc decisions. Surely it is becoming clear to our Government that they are damaging themselves by the way the government is run. On the radio we were promised by the Chief Minister that any decision in the Cap Juluca matter would be taken in the interests of Anguillian labour.

Sounds good, but what does it mean?What about indigenous Anguillian businessmen, the environment, security and actual jobs for Anguillians? Who would be employed on the new construction at Cap Juluca and who would be employed in guest services?
With regard to the environment, although planning drawings for the proposed new construction on Cove Bay show construction on the pond side of the dunes, without legislation what guarantee is there that the work will not become an ecological mess? Where is the legislation to protect us? In addition, Sheridan comments on Anguillians being denied access to the beaches by the concrete bastions of new hotel and luxury villa construction. Good emotive stuff that, but the danger is real. Where is the planning legislation to prevent it happening? With regard to security, the drawings for new development show that about 15 new villas will each have a jetty.What do the government think that they are doing with the security of this island? Are the rich to be permitted to bring in illegal immigrants or drugs or firearms with impunity?

In order to give villas close to the sea a beach front the sand dunes have been removed. Is it only the Anguillian public that knows the danger of loss of the beach during a hurricane? Are the developer and our planning office ignorant of this risk? When eventually the beach is lost the villas will be undermined with the risk not only to Sheridan’s wall of concrete. We will have the risk of a wall of derelict concrete.
In response to the draft Health Fund Act, a group of doctors wrote an open letter to the government and it was published in the 3 August edition of The Anguillian. No mention was made in the letter of the provisions in the draft bill for appointing board members.The draft bill provides for the Minister of Finance to appoint 3 members and for the Minister of Health to appoint 2 members. Again the government are opening themselves to accusation.The temptation is to accuse the Government that they are rewarding people who have given faithful service in some way or other with a fat salary for doing little. Or perhaps there is a family member who needs a job. Also, ministerial nominees are open to undue influence by ministers for personal and political ends. How can we ever say that we have good governance with this sort of thing going on, or even with this sort of thinking going on in the government? Board members could be appointed by groups such as civil service associations and health care providers including doctors in private practice. Interested financial institutions could also be able to participate, but keep undue political influence out of it.

Who read what KOR said in their statement in The Anguillian dated 27 July? They tell -us that during the implementation stage of their project they will contribute something over US$36 million to the economy by way of various taxes and government fees, local contracts, rents and donations to schools. However, they do not say what this represents as a percentage of their costs much less a percentage of what they will make from sales.They say that during operation of the resort they will contribute US$4.6 million a year to the island economy in taxes and government levies. Again there is no indication what this represents as a percentage of costs or revenue. No mention is made of the likely earnings by guest service staff.What is their policy on employing Anguillians for the future? Does our government know? The KOR press release seems to me to be smoke and mirrors. They try to impress by talk of tens of millions when they themselves must be working in many hundreds of millions. A developer must make a good profit on his work but we do not know how much participation Anguilla is being deprived of and it seems to be the intention to keep it that way.

Where in all of this is the transparency we are promised?

Bill Grandfield