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.

Mr. Romney was at the time expressing his views on a motion taken to the House on Monday May 5 by Leader of the Opposition, Hubert Hughes, calling on Government to terminate plans to expand Wallblake Airport and to develop the Brimegin site instead.

Romney, who initially favoured building an international airport at Brimegin, on the north coast of the island, spoke to The Anguillian in an interview about his balanced and analytic presentation in the House of Assembly. According to him, it is quite obvious that the Brimegin site has many attributes over the Wallblake site. At Wallblake, the topography is bad; the western side and eastern sides are sunken; there is a hump in the middle and the runway is in a residential area. In contrast, the Brimegin site is a new area with ingress from the sea; the surrounding land is undeveloped as is the case around any airport where the adjacent land is usually not suitable for development; and the topography is flatter.

“At the end of it all, however, you have to get down to reality in that when you compare the cost of the Brimegin site with Wallblake, there is great disparity and it is like walking into a dealership,” Romney said. “You walk in with the intention of buying a beautiful Mercedes jeep but when you are told that the price is 75 grand (thousand) you have to get down to reality and perhaps you can just leave with a Ford jeep. If it serves the same function you just have to be satisfied in that regard. I still hold that the attributes of Brimegin outweigh those of Wallblake. But the practicality of developing Brimegin and looking at today’s economic environment it is difficult for us to borrow nineteen million US to extend the existing Wallblake Airport, let alone to borrow a hundred million plus for the Brimigen site.
“I think that is a goal post that is too high and I had to be a convert and say we have to use the next best option. If we develop Wallblake and make the best of it (I understand it is now being developed to 6,000 feet), it can accommodate the Lear jet, the Gulf Streams and perhaps even the 737s. I think that will meet our needs for the foreseeable future without exorbitant expense.”

Mr. Romney said that unless a country had a large flow of passengers it was impossible to recoup the investment or support that investment to a lending institution. “An airport in itself is not a bankable proposal and any lending institution in evaluating such investment on its own will say it does not meet the standards. So let’s be practical, let’s be real and revert to the next best option.”

Asked whether his profession and experience as a Certified Public Accountant had influence his views or whether it was just a matter of commonsense reasoning, he replied: “Both really. I don’t think you can divorce one from the other; but in today’s tough economic environment we have to make sure that we do not over-commit ourselves economically. Let us choose the medium that would get us the end result but at the least cost.”

Second Nominated Member Claudel Romney

| Printer-friendly page | Send this article to a friend |

World News