News

The Ministry of Education, Library Services, Sports and Youth & Culture would like to congratulate the candidates who sat the May/June 2009 CXC Examinations. At the national level CSEC performances showed improvement over recent years. A pass rate of 74% of subject entries in a comprehensive school speaks volumes for student, parent teacher and school efforts.

Kennedy Hodge has promised a “Representation Revolution” in launching his candidacy for election to the District 1 seat in Anguilla’s upcoming general elections. He stated that the focus of his campaign launch, before a sizeable crowd on Thursday 28th August at the Island Harbour Playing Field, was to present himself to the District and Anguilla, to answer some questions, and briefly outline his plans which he would expand on later.

The Hon Victor Banks, at the Government Press Conference on August 25, announced that a Ports Authority was likely to be established in the near future. He said that for twelve months the Project Board had been discussing issues and consultants had been engaged.

Opposition member of the House of Assembly, Hubert Hughes said, “The Government should not prolong the agony of the population any longer.” He was referring to the need for early elections and says that he will keep advocating this. He said that it was common knowledge that the government is a “lame duck government” and nothing that they can do now will make a difference.

The 2009 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships will be remembered for Usain “Lightening” Bolt astonishing world records in the 100m and 200m races but more importantly, from the perspective of all Anguillians, was our own Shara Proctor competing in the finals of the women’s long jump from a field of thirty seven elite athletes.

The Anguilla Development Board is this week celebrating thirty years of operation during which period it has demonstrated itself to be a vehicle and financier of national growth and prosperity.
According to a Radio Anguilla broadcast by Minister of Finance, Victor Banks, since the inception of the statutory institution it has financed approximately 2,400 projects in excess of EC$141 million. The projects included fishing, agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, housing and student loans.

The Anguilla Government has signed up its permanent establishment of some nine hundred civil servants and their immediate families into an air ambulance evacuation plan, an initial step in the provision of an eventual island-wide service for the population.

The August holiday week in Anguilla was a time of merriment not only for hundreds of Anguillians, but many tourists and other persons who poured into the island for the 2009 Summer Festival. They all converged on the Landsome Bowl Cultural Centre where various shows were held, on the streets for jam sessions, a colourful parade of troupes and the attendant series of exciting boat races.

Chief Minister, Osbourne Fleming, and Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, Victor Banks, told reporters on Monday that the agreement which the Anguilla delegation signed in London last week with the Chinese Business Network (CBN) was for tourism promotion only. They gave the hasty explanation at the Chief Minister’s press conference in response to opposition charges and public fears that under the agreement local businesses would be at risk and eventually the island “would be swamped” by competing Chinese business investments.

Anguilla’s Minister of Finance, Victor Banks, speaking on behalf of Chief Minister, Osbourne Fleming, said that the island, like other OECS member territories, had concerns with ways and means of dealing with issues regarding the movement of persons throughout the sub-region.

Anguilla’s Parliamentarian, the Hon. Edison Baird, is back home recuperating well from injuries he sustained in a vehicular accident in the Water Swamp area on June 4. Since then he had been receiving treatment in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.
The Road North Elected Representative was met at Wallblake Airport on his arrival on Sunday, July 26, by a large number of persons from his constituency and from among the general public.

Talks with the Chinese Business Network (CBN) on tourism promotion and investment in Anguilla, and with British Government officials on the need for assistance to alleviate the impacts of the global economic crisis on the island, were among matters in which the Anguillian delegation was engaged in London over the past several days.

Crocus Hill, in the historic Lower Valley, long known as the highest elevation in Anguilla, is the site of a ten million US-dollar real estate development now rising majestically with a sweeping view of the beautiful fishing bay and beach below. The villa project is being built on land made available by Michael Basden, an Anguillian residing in Brooklyn, New York, whose late mother, Cecile Gumbs, served there as a Nurse before returning to Anguilla and taking up residence at the upper end of the property.

One of Anguilla's fire trucks overturned in the Little Dix area on Tuesday, while travelling to Shoal Bay Road, where the occupants of a jeep, reportedly driven by a female motorist, were trapped inside after the jeep had crashed into a utility pole. The fire truck was on its way to rescue them.

Cap Juluca Resort was ushered into the top of the news in Anguilla on Tuesday this week when the new owner, Adam Aron, representing his two partners and their company, Cap Juluca Properties Ltd, entered into a signed Memorandum of Agreement with the Government to own and further develop the world-class property. Mr. Aron, known “to put his money where his mouth is,” handed over to Government a cheque for one million US dollars in Stamp Duty for transfer of ownership of the resort to his company which could have been paid later.

There have been many school graduations in Anguilla over the past two weeks or so, but the most celebrated has been the graduation of the Sixth Form Class of of the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School on Thursday, July 2, at the Teachers’ Resource Centre.

It appears that there is now a generally well-worked out harmony and understanding among the Anguilla Bar Association, the Attorney General’s Chambers, the Anguilla Financial Services Association (AFSA) and the Anguilla Christian Council, with respect to what was seen in some circles as a controversial Proceeds of Crime Bill. With a good deal of agreement on all sides, the draft legislation is now ready to be presented to the House of Assembly over the coming days by Attorney General, Wilhelm Bourne, who played a major role in the public discussions.

With the Anguilla Summer Festival due to commence towards the end of this month, The Valley Community Troupe is off to an extremely good start having been presented with a cheque for US$10,000 by Crocus Bay Development, a neighbourhood villa project.

Newcomer to the political arena in Anguilla, Lawyer Cora Richardson-Hodge, has started a series of tent meetings in District 2, the East End/Sandy Hill constituency, which are allowing her to meet voters in the local communities at the grassroots level.

With all other political parties and candidates having virtually declared themselves for the upcoming general election, the governing United Front Party (UFP) is gearing up for the first of two conventions at the end of July. It will be at that first event that the party, to be officially led by the Hon. Victor Banks, in place of Chief Minister, Osbourne Fleming, who is retiring, will formally select and announce its candidates for the seven electoral districts.