News

An active community group at East End, called “CITRUS”, is making inroads in community life and social development there. Though not a political grouping, as its leadership and members emphasise, it nevertheless has a function which may help in the choice of candidates in the upcoming elections in Districts 1 and 2 (Island Harbour and Sandy Hill).

Anguillians turned out in large numbers at the James Ronald Webster Park on Tuesday, June 2nd, to celebrate the 42nd Anniversary of the Anguilla Revolution and Anguilla Day with an Official Parade and the honouring of a number of nationals and others for their outstanding contribution to the island.

The United Kingdom’s Attorney General, the Rt. Hon. Baroness Patricia Scotland, has made it clear to Anguilla and the other Overseas Territories that matters of good governance, public accountability and law and order are being followed closely in London. She was at the time addressing the opening session of the 18th Annual Conference of Attorneys General hosted this week by Anguilla at the Malliouhana Hotel & Spa Conference Centre at Meads Bay.

The stage has been set for the celebration of Anguilla Day on Tuesday, June 2, under the theme: Anguilla at 42: Moving On, We Celebrate With You. The staging event was a Thanksgiving Ecumenical Service at St. Mary’s Anglican Church on Sunday, May 24, attended by a capacity congregation, the largest seen there in recent years.

Anguilla’s Deputy Governor, the Honourable Stanley Reid, stressed that fraud impacts institutions at the personal and organisational level and the Anguilla Public Service was no exception.

Tragedy struck Anguilla early on Wednesday morning this week when a member of the Royal Anguilla Police Force, a national of Dominica, was killed in an accident on the Shoal Bay to Island Harbour road.

The Anguilla Community Foundation, which has made substantial grants from its Cares Campaign over the years, is preparing to make its first grant from its General Endowment Fund shortly to non-government organisations and other groups serving the island’s youth.

There is a strong possibility that cancer and kidney patients in Anguilla can get a whole lot of help under an arrangement being looked into, at the initiative of Dr. Roy Schneider, a noted physician and former Governor of the US Virgin Islands.

The rain held off as the two teams gathered on the beach awaiting the arrival of the St. Maarten 12 Metre boats for the seventh annual “Battle of the Banks” race which has become a key part of the annual Anguilla Regatta.

Minister of Tourism and Economic Development, Victor Banks, told reporters on Tuesday this week that the Anguilla Government was doing all it could to ensure that the Flag Luxury Project, which remains closed since the beginning of the latter half of last year, would not become “a white elephant” on the island.

With the general election in Anguilla constitutionally due in just under one year, a new Anguilla Democratic Party (ADP), comprising three members so far, has launched its campaign for the political leadership of the island while seeking additional qualified candidates.

The imposing and luxury Anguillian-owned da’Vida Restaurant at Crocus Bay, is the island’s newest classy cuisine facility with seventeen well-experienced staff members serving a growing number of patrons on two shifts. The attractive structure, which is to be further developed on the top floor, complements the long-established Lloyd’s Guest House in the historic Upper Valley. There is also a small villa development at Crocus Bay neatly tucked away in the northern corner of the beach opposite the new restaurant which had a soft opening on April 30, ahead of its formal grand commissioning in the near future.

The Anguilla Community College moved a step forward in its organisational structure with the formal installation of a Board of Directors at a ceremony, in the Atlin Noraldo Harrigan Parliamentary Building on Tuesday evening, April 28, ably chaired by Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Mrs. Chanelle Petty-Barrett.

In what has been his first monthly press conference since assuming his responsibilities in Anguilla, Governor Alistair Harrison told reporters on Tuesday, April 28, about a few themes which had emerged from bilateral talks so far with Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming and other Ministers of Government.

Anguilla is taking precautions to guard against cases of the Swine Flu entering Anguilla. The Ministry of Health and Social Development has announced that while there are still no restrictions on international travel, officials will be questioning travellers entering the island.

The galleries of the Atlin Noraldo Harrigan OBE Parliamentary Building were filled to capacity on Tuesday morning, April 21, when Anguilla’s newly-appointed British Governor, His Excellency William Alistair Harrison CVO, was sworn in by High Court Judge, Madam Justice ... who is on a short stint from the British Virgin Islands.

Pam Webster, one of Anguilla’s astute and frontline professional young women, has announced that she will stand in the next General Election as a candidate for the Anguilla Progressive Party in District I, Island Harbour, where she was born and resides with her husband and four-year old son.

Festival Del Mar, now in its second year at Island Harbour, Anguilla, the island’s main fishing village, has been described as having been a tremendous success. Such was the large crowd in attendance that one onlooker, unable to find a more descriptive term for the mass assembly and activities, said the scene was “a sea of people, and a sea of events.”

Mr Alistair Harrison CVO will arrive in Anguilla on Sunday 19 April 2009 to take up his appointment as Governor. He will be accompanied by his wife Sarah and their three children Matilda (Tilly) aged 9, and twins Eliza and Ralph, aged 5. Mr Harrison was previously scheduled to arrive in Anguilla on 9 April but was delayed due to the sudden death of his father.

The Anguilla Government has no immediate plans to send home any of its workers or reduce salaries, but is taking a hard look at cutting allowances, starting with members of the House of Assembly to save some one million dollars.