The private residence of Anguilla’s Chief Minister, Osbourne Fleming, at Seafeathers, was the venue for a retreat by Ministers and Officials of Government on Tuesday afternoon this week, February 6. The mass group meeting was called by Mr. Fleming to examine various issues and problems facing the island and to find common ground for solutions and fresh policies. The retreat also follows much criticism of Government in recent times among the citizenry.

The Government, Advisers and other officials

Speaking in a telephone interview, Mr. Fleming told The Anguillian that the retreat was aimed at looking at certain areas of Government with the hope of implementing some new policies for 2007. The areas of concern were given as Alien Landholding Licences, Immigration and Labour.

The Chief Minister stated that as Anguilla developed more pressure was being brought to bear on the Immigration Department and the objective of the new policies was to ensure a smooth running of this arm of Government. He stressed that the labour situation “was getting more acute” and his administration was “looking for measures to put in place now and in the future regarding labour.”

Mr. Fleming noted that the Government had already suspended for six weeks consideration of new applications for Alien Landholding Licences. “This suspension does not apply to persons coming to Anguilla to buy houses, condominiums or villas,” he explained. “It applies to people coming in to buy land. What we are trying to do is to hold back on the sale of land in Anguilla.”

He pointed out that as Anguilla continued to develop, there were “a lot of problems at present and a lot of others to come”. Mr. Fleming added: “Before the problems get worse, we are trying to put measures in place to mitigate them.”

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