Legislative Council: Motion for Adjournment Speeches

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, may I first start by apologising to Brigadier Gordon and the Chief Executive, also not least the Governor, for not welcoming them to this House. It’s been 5 months since the last visit and I just forgot. Welcome.

Councillors have been eased through this budget by the well-organised way that the paperwork has been handled. The Financial Secretary, Derek Howatt and his Deputy, Keith Padgett and their staff, not least Hulga Burroughs, have made sure that over the last few months, information has been flowing down the road to Gilbert House.

The Heads of Department have been very co-operative and it seems a world away from the way we used to do it, with Heads of Department coming into the Liberation Room, some looking like they were going to the inquisition. And, after all, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

I don’t mind, and I don’t believe that there will be many growls about the outcome of this budget, except possibly fag heads. And, their defender has already said a few words and might well say some more before the afternoon is out.

To me the main objective was to maintain service levels. We are lucky enough to have very good public services in these Islands. And, that has been achieved with little fuss but a lot of teamwork.

Complacency is a key word. And, as we set here yesterday, we had a close call last year with income from the fisheries. It is right then, that other sources of income have to be pursued. There has been a lot of discussion about the abattoir and the costs mounting up. Most of those costs are imposed on us from Brussels. And, no matter how much we growl about them, if we want the Abattoir to be certified, then the money has to be spent. Here is an opportunity for the farming sector to move away from the one crop. The abattoir may fail but it will most certainly fail if the support isn’t there within the farming community.

Now, Planning is an emotive subject but Planning Control is even more so. Cllr. Cockwell is Chair of the Planning Committee along with Cllr. Norma Edwards and they are trying, I know, to put some local common sense into the way some of the regulations are being interpreted. It would appear that one of the hold-ups of the opening of the new Charity Shop has been the assistance that the west wall, that was mistakenly clad in wood, be changed to metal cladding. This is because of a so-called fire risk. It backs on to a garden and I just cannot see what the big deal is. It’s this kind of apparent pettiness that is causing a great deal of concern. Last year, there was a proposed trip to the Jason Islands to inspect some footings. But it didn’t happen, I might add.

Going back to construction, and the construction of houses, my house is 160 years old this year. And, that’s even older than some around this room. It’s made of wood and, I suggest, that with the use of peat as a main source of fuel, now a fraction of what it was not so long ago, and with modern wiring, wooden houses have never been safer. I ask Cllr Cockwell to put these thoughts through to his Committee.

And, on the subject of pettiness, I make it plain that I support the Stanley Police and have a lot of respect for those officers who are committed to serving the community and, who at times have a very difficult job to perform. But the term frivolous prosecution is being spoken about at the moment. I can’t believe it was in the public interest to prosecute a visitor who made an error of judgement at the Globe Corner, when there were no injuries and both parties agreed on payment. And, also the length of time taken to decide to prosecute. Was it really in the public interest to prosecute a local man who had a very minor nudge whilst parking. These are only two examples of some that have gone before the Courts in these last few months. I am fully aware of how the system works but I am pleased to know that the Attorney General has taken onboard this very real public concern.

The Trial for the Ross Road Clearway has been extended until next March. I’m still not convinced that there was a problem to solve in the first place. But I am willing to see it carry on, providing we just haven’t pushed cars on to side roads and other streets. I just hope we are not creating a problem elsewhere. But what is needed is more feedback from the public.

We nearly had a bit of a minor traffic problem around this building, the Town Hall, today. I believe the Governor lost his way and drove into the car park using the wrong entrance. Let us hope that in his three years in the Islands, that is the only way he loses.

SL: Watch he doesn’t get prosecuted. (Was it Howard or his driver who did this?)

JB: Today’s challenge Day. And, I know it’s a challenge just to get out of bed in the morning. It’s a good idea and if it promotes more use of the Leisure Centre then, go for it. Today, the Junior School did the Conga. And, I am certainly not suggesting that others in this room do the Conga with me this afternoon. But I shall be playing Buffs Tennis tonight – and I did say Buffs. I just wonder what my fellow Councillors will be doing before the end of the day.

Mr. Speaker, I support the Motion.

Mr. Speaker, this is my second budget and, like Cllr. Birmingham, I. Too, would like to thank the Financial Secretary, his deputy, Keith Padgett and the rest of the staff, who have managed to produce a budget with a £2 Million difference between Revenue and Expenditure. Experience and history, however, has shown that we will probably be over-spent by the end of the Financial Year. I would encourage everyone to obtain and read a copy of the estimates of revenue and expenditure, in particular, the pages showing the revenue and expenditure over the past 20 years or so. They can see the alarming increase in the costs since 1996 in particular.

The Financial Secretary said yesterday (that) we must maintain rigorous budgetary processes. Yes. We must.

I am delighted to say that we have been able to maintain the £1 Million annual input into the budget for Camp Roads. And, the move to the West of some of the direct labour force, since the roads on the East are nearing completion, so that we can have an early completion of road building on the West. And, present planning indicates this may be in 2007.

While discussing roads, and some of the complaints I’ve heard regarding the MPA Road, shortly, they will be conducting a trial on that road whereby they will be using tillite, which is a much softer stone than the present hard, Pony’s Pass Quarry gravel. We hope it is a success.

I am also delighted that we were able, in this budget, to maintain the system of Holiday Credits, whereby everyone in the Islands benefits from the income from fish.

My predecessor mentioned the Abattoir. I. too, will raise the subject of the Abattoir. It continues to require large sums of money in both infrastructure and subsidy. And, with declining sheep numbers over the past eight years. Whether it ever will be at full capacity or break even, must be in doubt. I do not believe the blame for failure should be put on farmers but, perhaps, over-ambition in the first place. We have a meeting on the 11^th of July between the Standing Finance Committee and the Development Board and all other interested parties, at which the public are able to attend. I would welcome them there at that meeting. But I would also beg that members of the Camp Community let the Chief Executive and the others know their views during the forth-coming Road Shows. Without you letting them know, your feelings, than only one voice in the wilderness.

Speaking to members of the public, and particularly those in the Camp, I would also welcome their views on the proposed National Parks. So far, most people that I have spoken to seem to think that it is a nonsense. Please let the Road Show know your feelings.

On another subject, the extension to the Hospital for a care for the elderly ward, the planning process has been underway for some time. The money has been in place for some time and the money has already been passed over from last year to this. I beg that this should be completed earlier rather than later.

Mr. Speaker, costs are escalating. This Financial Year, we are looking to spend something like £5.4 Million within the Medical Department. Education costs us another £4.6 Million. But we, as Councillors, are committed to maintain these services at their present high level. We do have other outstanding items not yet included in this year’s budget – East Stanley Development Phase 8, and, perhaps having to replace the runway at Stanley Airport.

To raise the additional revenue that is required, I am not in favour of taxing the civilian contractors at MPA. Corporation Tax by the Companies – they have already signed up for many years under the Dual Taxation Arrangement. But if we tax the individual contractor, this is bound to put up the costs. And, I believe, that any additional cost for the defence of these Islands is wrong. We should be helping the defence of these Islands the best way we can.

I, too, forgot to say good-bye when we were speaking and that is to Russ Jarvis and his wife after 6.5 years. And, I wish them both well in Montserrat.

Mr. Speaker, I support the Motion for Adjournment.

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, I won’t dwell on the budget, I don’t think, other than to express a degree of satisfaction that we’ve managed to achieve the target of a surplus of £2Million before the year starts. I don’t honestly feel that it’s an adequate target. I think we should be doing a little better than that. We will have to be very rigorous over the forthcoming year about the issue of no growth. We cannot allow growth in the expenditure budget. There isn’t any scope, I’m afraid, so we will be in future years seeking to reduce expenditure. We will have to reduce services. And, I will come back to that in a minute.

But it is and remains the responsibility of all budget holders, Heads of Department and other people in departments to do the very best that they can with public money, not to spend it if its not necessary to spend it and to provide the best value that you possibly can. I know that many, many people do that. Some, perhaps, could try harder and we would urge them to do that. It’s in everybody’s benefit. The aim surely has to be, as I said yesterday, to achieve balance between expenditure on the services that the public require and we wish to be able to provide for them, for investments in personal infrastructure and economic development, which are essential for going forward.

Otherwise, we simply stagnate, and for contributions to the reserves. The reserve is slightly less than 2.5 times current expenditure. We do have an ambition to get that up somewhere near three times current expenditure and we have to work on our strategy for doing that.

If I could pass my thanks to Derek Howatt, who hasn’t thanked himself for the work that he’s done in preparation for the budget. He’s thanked everybody else. So, thank you to him, for his guidance. It’s my 7^th budget and it’s certainly been the most intensive and it’s been one of the best organised. Thank you and all your staff for that.

On other matters, some more important than others, perhaps, the Clearway, as my colleagues have said, has been extended until the end of March next year. I do fall in that category of people who are not entirely convinced that we need to do anything. But if we need to do something, this is the least worst solution. We will see how it works during the summer season when there are lots of tourists about and then make a decision towards the end of March/April next year, whether we continue it or not. And, I believe the intention may be to have a debate in the House on the issue. And, I think that will be fascinating.

Just to update members of the public on what’s happening with the Constitution, we haven’t heard much for a while. There is, in fact, a workshop planned for next week, at which all Members will be present, to look at the Structure of Government, to look at how we run the Government, whether we are doing it in the most efficient manner and whether we are providing the best form of governance for the Falklands at the present time. We hope that out of that meeting will come some final suggestions for amendments to the Constitution or not. And then, we can move forward some proposals to the Foreign Office.

Much has been talked about in recent days and weeks about the Fisheries Review, so I won’t touch on that other than to say that it is moving forward, I think, in a positive manner. We look forward now to the further deliberations of the sub group and to getting that done.

Running parallel with that very important piece of work has been amendments to the tax system. And, we have a special Executive Council in July to consider recommendations from the Taxation Advisory Committee. I don’t think it would be out of order for me to say at this time that the Advisory Committee, itself, will not be making any proposals to implement personal taxation on contractors at Mount Pleasant. At the end of the day, of course, those are decisions for Executive Council and not the Advisory Committee. So, that decision awaits the meeting in July. But the Committee, itself, is not going to make that proposal.

I cannot but speak about the new meat industry in the Falklands. I remember vividly, still, the period from 1989, when I first arrived at FIDC, right through the ‘90s and even up until relatively recently, being a relatively lone voice in supporting the development of a tourism industry. They were saying that it would never work, that we couldn’t do it and that people won’t come here. Well, now, actually, we do have a tourism industry. It is working, it is making money and it’s providing good employment for a number of people.

To start up a new industry is a long process to start up a new agricultural-based industry is a long, long process. And, we know and understand, we knew and understood when we started out on this project that there were some inherent risks, and that it might be expensive and it wouldn’t all go right just on the 1^st day. But we’ve got to work at it. We’ve got to provide the scope and the opportunity for farmers to have an alternative source of income. Not to do so would be folly. We’ve seen the results of that folly in recent years. And, I equally well remember in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, it was one of my first tasks here, looking at Agriculture and saying that it is madness to depend on a single source of income from Agricultural sources. So, we will give the development of the meat industry our support over the coming years. We will deal with problems as they arise and I hope we will solve them. I look forward in a number of years being able to stand up somewhere, whether it’s here or somewhere else, and saying, "I told you so."

Just before I close, my colleague John Birmingham and I will be off to New York shortly to the C-24 to represent the Falklands in that forum. We will be encouraging both the new Argentine Government and the Members of the Committee of the C-24 to take a fresh approach and a new look at what goes on, both in terms of Falklands/Argentine relations and what goes on in C-24. We are not a Colony. There shouldn’t be composite motions from supporters of Argentina proposing de-colonisation of the Falklands. We will have to move on from that. And, it will be our task, at least in this particular instance, to try to put some force behind that. And, I do urge, once again, the new Argentine Government to be more forward thinking about its approach and attitude towards the Falklands. Recognise that we are a country. We exist. I’m sorry if you don’t like it but here we are. And, we do have the right to self-determination as all peoples do. So, it’s time they took a fresh approach and moved forward and recognised the reality of the situation.

Sir, I support the Motion.

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, as my colleagues have said, the budget this time has been a lengthy process involving many days’ work by Councillors, many more by Treasury Staff and other Government Offices. With several years of tight budgeting the greatest problems are being experienced by those departments. And, there are a few who already had tight budgets, by those that are large employers of people providing public services, in other words, when they have to cut, it almost always comes down to cutting people. They may well do in the future, and those who genuinely cannot predict now what calls there may be on their budgets in the next few months.

People try to make a reasonable guess, for example, on the number of medical evacuations we may have to carry out in a year. It’s impossible, obviously, to predict those exactly. Nevertheless, all of them undertook the task with the will that helped us produce a reasonable budget, maintaining services.

Obviously, we are indebted to the Financial Secretary, his Deputy and Staff for the orderly way with which they present all the detail to us. However, unlike the Financial Secretary, we don’t have our own secretaries to make sure we have all our papers in order when we arrive at meetings.

I’d like to move on because a couple of people have mentioned the Abattoir. Meat exporting has a chequered history in the Islands, starting with the tallow works, from then to the first export of meat by the original Falkland Islands Meat Company in 1883, through various other exercises including a canning operation, through to the Ajax Bay disaster in the ‘50s, leading through to the 1986 report to FIDC by the Meat and Livestock Commission on the feasibility of exports. However, all that is history and I hope we’ve learned from it. And, I reiterate my view that we are right to subsidise this as support for agricultural diversification. I want to see it succeed but I won’t mislead anyone by suggesting that I think it will be profitable at any time in the near future. In the meantime, we await with interest, hopefully with the approval of the recipients of the first shipment of the meat and the accurate figures on real costs, which were promised at the joint meeting in July.

I also look forward to the meeting, which I haven’t heard about until my colleague on my left mentioned it in July on the new Taxation Policy. I am pleased that in the proposal it is planned that independent taxation of couples will become the norm. It’s not that many years ago that I can remember when married women weren’t even allowed to subscribe to the retirement pensions. This reflects the change in our society where now most married women work.

And, for that reason, I am disappointed on the slow progress on the provision of nursery care. I hope we can really get on with that in the next few months. And, I am grateful for the support of colleagues who think that is worth doing, in particular, the Hon. John Birmingham, who has been active in pursuing a little lateral thinking on the subject.

Going briefly back to the taxation review, I have had a number of people express concern regarding the taxation of civilians and civilian companies at MPA. What I would like to see before any decision is made out there as any implications in financial terms that it might have on our services we would be expected to provide on the cost sharing agreement. We need to look very hard at figures on those before we consider this, forgetting putting aside for the moment, all the other implications there might be on that.

Finally, I was contacted by the newspaper and interviewed by them last week on the question of the proposed student contracts. I would like to reiterate the points I made. These contracts will help us to monitor the progress of students and insure that we keep track of their welfare. They are no threat to students who go with a will to work, nor are they a threat in any way to those who have genuine problems, either medical or otherwise. There should be help available in the college or university support systems. But if that fails, and it can do sometimes in a very large institution, then they need to feel they can contact the department either directly or through their parents. All we ask is that they be honest and let us know early if they are experiencing problems so that help and advice can be offered. We can’t afford to wait for reports, which are often half yearly and may be too late to allow timely help to be offered. Most of our students have a happy time abroad. We all suffer homesickness to some degree. All we’re trying to do is offer them maximum support.

I support the motion.

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, I, too, did not welcome the new members to the Legislature. It was because we had already had quite a few people welcoming them. And, I must say that the public who are listening to this broadcast tell me that they get tired of hearing the same thing over and over again. So, I thought I would leave it to this time of the meeting. And, I welcome the Chief Executive and Commander British Forces to the Legislative Council. And, I also wish Russ Jarvis and Joan Jarvis well and look forward to hearing how they get on in Montserrat.

I won’t speak long but I must congratulate them on the process of the budget this year. It’s been a very tortuous one, starting off with the alternative budgets earlier in the year, expecting there might be a problem with Fisheries. Fortunately that is recovered so we didn’t have to make the cuts that we feared we might have to make.

And, I agreed there was, the Holiday Credit Scheme is actually able to remain because I believe that, that scheme creates an enthusiasm amongst the community, which would not be seen there. It must be dreadful if you cannot afford or are not able one way or the other to get overseas and just sit and look out over the fence. It’s much better to go overseas and find out that the Falklands are a wonderful place and come back here and live here quite happily. And, I think it really is a very good scheme and a well thought out scheme many years ago.

The Hon. Roger Edwards mentioned the Hospital Extension and I, too, wish and hope that it will come to fruition this year. And, I look to the chairman of the Public Works Committee to make sure that, that happens.

The Clearway, which has been approved by executive Council to go on for a further year – I feel that before we make a firm decision on the Clearway, I think we should try alternatives just to make sure we are not missing something. I personally still feel that a one-way system would actually solve a lot of the problems. I remember the debate in this house two or three years ago. We were out voted but I still believe that we should try the one-way system. And, I believe there may well be Members who before voted against the one-way system might actually change their minds. I look forward to the debate first.

Finally, regarding the remarks by Cllr. Birmingham on the Planning processes and the Building Regulations. I think I should make a statement as Chairman of the Planning and Building Committee. And, I would like to take this opportunity to assure Members that the Planning and Building Committee has asked the Environmental Planning Officer, two meetings ago actually, to make proposals as to how to relax some of the more draconian building regulations, which had been discussed recently in many places. I think there are a lot of members of the public who feel that these regulations are too draconian and I must say I am sympathetic with them, as are many of the Members of the Committee. The Committee expects these proposals to come to the next meeting at the beginning of next month and that a paper will be submitted to EXCO in the middle of July with proposals to find ways of relaxing these, some of the Planning regulations.

Further to this, I personally hope that the Building Regulations might be examined by EXCO in the near future in the light of the experience that we’ve all had with the implementation of the Planning and Building ordinance to see if modifications are required. I believe that possibly in the enthusiasm in the first place to bring in planning regulations and the need, not the enthusiasm. But the recognition we needed planning regulations we put these in but the lack of experience has shown that some of these regulations are possibly a bit in excess of what we require in the Falkland Islands.

Sir, I support the Motion.

Thank you Mr. Speaker, in rising to support the Motion for Adjournment, may I add my thanks and admiration to the Treasury Staff in the way they handled the budget this year. I know just how much hard work has gone on there over the year when we thought we were going to have to have a much more stringent budget so they really had to work out two budgets this year. And, they’ve worked extremely hard.

I mentioned briefly yesterday, the proposed accommodation for the elderly members for the community presently admitted to the hospital ward. It was agreed some time ago to extend the ward at the east end of the hospital to enable separate units suitable for the elderly who are no longer able to look after themselves completely to be built. This was agreed when I was Chairing the Hospital Committee. And, it was agreed that these alterations should take place as quickly as possible. That was over 2 years ago. And, it disappoints me greatly that we seem to be no further forward on this front. I really do hope that by the next budget session this will have been completed. It seems if you are elderly and infirm, you are a lower priority than office reorganisation, patients waiting areas or the reorganisation of the whole of the top floor of the hospital for a laboratory. That all seemed to happen in a flash. And, our senior citizens, who deserve to have their own little room with a few bits of their own furniture and knickknacks about them, have to be looked after on the acute ward of the hospital, which is not suitable either for them or for the every day running of the hospital.

And, whilst I am on this particular band wagon, I hear it’s all going to happen soon but there doesn’t seem to be much advancement happening or the new sheltered accommodation front. I am assured, of course, that it will happen and I sincerely hope it does, bearing in mind that the first and last sheltered accommodation, which was built was in 1984/1985, nearly 20 years ago. And, we have an increasing population of elderly people. One is sitting on my left. We should be able to offer them reasonable, comfortable accommodation and the necessary care that they will need. I sincerely hope that we get on with these things. We talk about it and nothing much happens.

I, too, am very pleased that the West Road Programme is to be execrated. And, I hope that the actual contracts are looked at. They seem to get bogged down in PWD Contracts, when there are able people on the West who would be able to take part in this road programme. They have the necessary heavy goods vehicle ability. They don’t ever seem to get much of a chance. PWD has its rigid regulations that it sticks to – 9 to 5 or 9 to 7 hours on the road every day and it really needs to be more flexible for working in the Camp and you want the Camp Community to take a part in this. And, I think it would be a shame if people were not allowed to take advantage of helping with the West Roads – or the East, to come to that.

The Ross Road Clearway, well, you need to go live in a Dorset backwater and then tell me you've got a problem on Ross Road. I really don’t think that there really is a traffic problem. And, if it’s got to be extended for another year, well, so be it. It seems to me, it’s a bit like an EEC Referendum – if you don’t get the right answer first time round, you just keep on and on until, in the end, people eventually agree with you. I won’t because I just don’t see the point of it. Then, it doesn’t really bother me too much because I don’t actually live3 in Stanley but I do feel for the people who have to put up with it.

My husband mentioned National Parks. There is a meeting on the 16^th at Hill Cove about the proposed National Park for the West. And, I hope as many people from the West will join us there. That’s the Environmental Planning Officer, myself and I don’t know how many others that will be attending. We would welcome anybody who wishes to come.

Sir, I support the Motion for Adjournment.

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, in rising to support the Motion, I’d like to talk about aeroplanes for the moment. I was standing around at one of the recent parade events – I think it might have been the Queen’s Birthday – when a loud, noisy fly past by two Tornadoes prompted a comment from a lady standing next to me. It went something like, "It will raise some more complaints." On enquiring as to what she meant, I was somewhat astonished to find out a particularly spirited pass by 1435 Flt. Over the town a few months ago prompted a record number of complaints. Something on the order of 60 was the figure mentioned. And, I confess I never got around to checking the accuracy of that. I would imagine that most of you present in this room, and, indeed, a good number of our listeners on the radio, would remember the unique and distinctly unpleasant sound of a passing Pucarra. I certainly do. I might have been only 9 but I remember them circling the settlement at Chartres a day or two before the infamous Major Dowling turned up to collect us for a chat and a free holiday. That particular noise isn’t here any more and we do well to remember who to thank for the fact that it is now a distant memory. I think that it was in this House that the expression "the sound of freedom" was coined many years ago. And, I think it would be a jolly good idea if folks took a moment to remember why. I would just like to say, for the record, although I’d rather they didn’t break too many windows the RAF are welcome to fly as low and as often over my house as they like.

Continuing on the aviation theme, I just had the dubious pleasure of passing through various United States airports on route to and from the AAPG conference a couple of weeks ago. I think it’s generally accepted that airport security in the States has gone from one extreme to the other after September the 11^th.

It was interesting to note the difference now, a year after my last visit. No longer is every single passenger searched and every single suitcase opened. And, although there are some big queues, airport security there has become slightly more sensible. So, it is with some surprise that I find out that passengers exiting the Islands on the LanChile flight are still all individually searched on departure. The risk here has to be extremely low anyway, as many of the passengers are well-known to security personnel. There are a very limited number of routes into the Islands. Added to that the fact that a would-be terrorist would have to smuggle explosives into the Islands as well. I think we could safely say it’s a pretty small risk.

With that in mind, I wonder why we are still using our security strategy, which appears to me to be at a high level than even Continental United States. Clearly the level of security we are using is not a requirement applied by LanChile. Nothing like this is done on any of the other LanChile flights I was on recently. I wonder it it is time to take a look at what we are doing and if it is really necessary, especially as we had to double the Departure Tax to cover the significant cost of it. I will be the first to admit that "Better safe than sorry" is the best policy in relation to do with anything to do with aviation safety. But it’s important to remember that we also need to consider value for money and relate what we are doing here to what is going on elsewhere and the relative risks.

I mentioned the last time I was standing here that in my view some rules and regulations were starting to cause bother. Various people have already mentioned the Planning and Building regulations. It’s become increasingly apparent, over the last year or so, that the extent to which some of those regulations are being applied are impeding developments which most people would consider perfectly reasonable.

And, perhaps more importantly, which the Council of the day probably never sought to influence hen it passed the original Bill. I think we are overdue for a review of those regulations and I hope we can do away with some of the daft concepts in the process.

In my view, the requirement for regulation should be tempered by a good deal of common sense. That’s a commodity most people would agree is probably readily available here. The fact is that most of the old houses are much better and much stronger built than the modern cardboard kit houses. I would know because I got one of those. I don’t believe that knit-picking about the height of the drains or the type of cladding you can use in relation to the distance from your fence is helpful to anybody.

The Clearway trial seems to have been largely successful in most people’s view. There are, of course, people who don’t approve of it – mainly those affected by restrictions in parking around their home or work place. I think it is an understandable point of view. I think it’s important to mention, in my estimate, probably 90% of people who expressed a view on the subject are in favour of it continuing. What is interesting is that the number of those people who have openly admitted that they were dead against it in the beginning. My personal view is that if it becomes permanent we need to look at better parking, such ad the third parking lane on the front road. At the moment, we are giving with one hand and taking away with the other. Nice as free-flowing traffic is, I have to say I didn’t find a particular problem the way it was before. As I have said on a number of occasions, anybody who regularly wants to subject themselves to driving west against the flow of traffic at lunch time was welcome to do so. But they didn’t have to do it because there were plenty of other routes through the town. Having unintentionally experienced the M-25 for several hours on a Friday evening once, I can’t say the traffic situation in town would cause me any significant problems in comparison.

Just in closing, I would like to say that I also hope that Cllr. Summers can stand in this House in a few years’ time and say, "I told you so."

Mr. Speaker, I support the Motion.

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