Limestone Bay Café, one of the island’s popular local restaurants and situated at one of the quietest locations, was the venue this week of a retreat by members of the House of Assembly to discuss the proposed amendments to the Anguilla Constitution.

Members of the Legislature and Mr. Don Mitchell

The meeting of Elected Members from the Government and Opposition sides of the House as well as Nominated and Ex-Officio Members also included retired OECS Judge, Don Mitchell, who was Chairman of the Constitutional and Electoral Reform Commission which submitted its report to the Governor in August last year.

Since then nothing was heard about the report and its recommendations, resulting in some criticism levelled against the Government for not speeding up the process. The first move in that direction was an announcement late last week from the Chief Minister’s Office. The Anguillian public was told that the Government had accepted an invitation for a team from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to visit the island during the week beginning July 23 to discuss the way forward on the constitutional review.
In the meantime, the announcement from the Chief Minister’s Office stated that the Anguilla Government had undertaken to complete its own review of the recommendations and would consult the people of the island prior to the arrival of the FCO team.

The meeting of the Legislature at Limestone Bay Café, which begun there on Tuesday, was part of that review. The Anguillian observed, during its short stay, that the discussions were just as pleasant as the environment of the sea-side location chosen for the meeting.

The 137-page Constitutional and Electoral Reform Commission’s Report includes 52 pages of recommendations which can be downloaded separately from the Anguilla Government’s website – www.gov.ai.

The upcoming visit from London is part of a series of reviews between the FCO and a number of Britain’s Overseas Territories regarding constitutional advancement.

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