The Flag Project, Government’s involvement in the golf course, part of that development, and its future, were the main talking points at the press conference held on Wednesday this week by Opposition Members Hubert Hughes and Edison Baird.

Hon. Hubert Hughes and Hon. Edison Baird

Mr. Hughes referred to two recent meetings which and he and Mr. Baird were invited to by the Government to discuss the Flag Project, particularly the golf course. They were informed that one of the proposed options was that the golf course should be turned over to the Government; that Government should pay for its maintenance and improvements and that the payments would be made until the project was completed and those payments would be offset by Accommodation Tax for 30 years. He said it was also proposed that Mr. Sillerman and his partners would set up a management company to run the golf course for the Government.

“When we read that particular proposal, what we realised was that Mr. Sillerman was asking for a bailout,” Mr. Hughes alleged, recalling that the Chief Minister had introduced a motion in the House of Assembly requesting that something should be done to assist Mr. Sillerman and the golf course project. “To our mind, Mr. Baird and me, we saw this as the bailout because Mr. Sillerman is not giving up the golf course. He would still be managing it under a management company,” he further charged.

Later on, however, Mr. Hughes said that Mr. Manning, one of Mr. Sillerman’s partners, who was at the meeting, had said that Mr. Sillerman would rather walk away from the golf course project if he had to.

Mr. Hughes stressed that it was not possible for the Anguilla Government to give away revenue, such as Accommodation Tax, unless it was approved by parliament. “If the Government of Anguilla was to do this legally, they would have to bring it to the House of Assembly and ask for it to be done,” he said. “And I do not think that the Government would want a debate in the House on that.”

Mr. Edison Baird was of the personal position “that the Government is prepared to financially endanger Anguilla in an effort to open the golf course for political reasons.” He further stated: “It is our belief that the Government is seeking to open the golf course and then immediately call general elections. This is a Government that is under considerable difficulty. They have internal problems and external problems.”

Mr. Baird went on: “Mr. Manning, in the meeting with us, in the Chief Minister’s Office, described the golf course as a failed project… and he said, as Mr. Hughes pointed out, that Mr. Sillerman is prepared to walk away from the project. We see that for what it is – an attempt to pressure the Government into saddling the Anguilla taxpayers with a heavy burden. It is a burden that will undoubtedly lead to the introduction of various taxes.”

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