The Darwin Harbour Sports Association will be holding a two-nighter at Goose Green on the 6^th and 7^th of May. Dog Trials start at 1000. The Sweep will be drawn after the dog trials. Details as they are sent to FINN.

Section 2:

FIBS NEWS DIRECT: 29 APRIL 2005

COURT NEWS:

Four men, who were all facing charges of affray, had their cases adjourned in Court yesterday. John McKay, Melvin Clifton, Ryan Hawksworth and Mervin Lee were in Court following an incident on the 17^th of March. Richard Marlor, who is defending Melvin Clifton and Mervin Lee said that it would be best to wait until they are all in a position to plead but told the Court that they were unlikely to get a guilty plea from his two clients. Ian Warburton is defending John McKay and Ryan Hawksworth. The case has been adjourned until 04 May.

Three men facing joint charges of violent disorder had their cases adjourned until next week. Ian Warburton, who is defending Andrew MacDonnald, Ryan Hawksworth and Christopher Saunders told the Court that he only received further witness statements last week and perhaps matters could be concluded at the next sitting. Mr. MacDonnald is also facing a charge of affray and Christopher Saunders a charge of grievous bodily harm. Mr. Hawksworth is also charged with affray and assault by beating. The case was adjourned until Wednesday, 04 May.

ELQUI FORFEITED:

An application for the detained fishing vessel, ELQUI, to be forfeited to the South Georgia Government was approved in Court this morning. Ros Cheek for the prosecution told the Court that the ELQUI was convicted of an offence earlier this month and she understands that no payment has been received from owners, Geneagles Corporation, who has been fined £25,000.00 for charges relating to illegal fishing activities in South Georgia waters. She added that the South Georgia Government had been made aware that the master and crew of the vessel were planning to leave the Islands on Saturday, effectively abandoning it. Miss Cheek had been in contact with defence lawyer, Richard Marlor, who had previously withdrawn from the case. He said he had been instructed by the owners not to make representations in Court. Senior Magistrate, Claire Faulds, granted the order for the vessel to be forfeited to the South Georgia Government and revoked the detention order.

BIO SECURITY:

The recently formed Bio Security Working Group are very close to working out the final details on the job description of the new post of bio security officer. I (SF) asked Veterinary Officer, Steve Pointing (SP), what these would be.

SP: The recommendations from the Bio Security Working Group were that we should have a Bio Security Officer that was situated within the Agriculture Department but would assist across a number of other departments such as Customs and possibly Environmental Planning. That has not been agreed to in the discussions in the Agricultural Advisory Committee. So, we have gone for a different set-up whereby we have a vacant post within the Agriculture Department and we will appoint within the next month or two, hopefully, a person that we are calling an assistant agricultural advisor (bio-security). The job purpose as we have written it at the moment is to implement bio-security and animal health programmes on behalf of the Falkland Islands Government. Although this person is going to be situated within Agriculture and probably will be line managed by myself, we are still hoping that they will have sufficient time to be able to assist one or two other departments within Government on bio-security type issues.

STANDING FINANCE COMMITTEE:

The Standing finance Committee has approved a new rate of £2.00 for all sheep being moved on the Tamar. A paper, which went before SFC this morning explained that there is a charge of £2.00 a head in practice for moving sheep to the Abattoir, using the coastal shipping service but the EXCO approved rates are £3.00 a head for more than 30 sheep and £5.00 a head for less than 30 sheep. Although there doesn’t appear to be a record for EXCO approving a different rate for the Abattoir, the coastal shipping service provider has only charged £2.00 as this what was previously charged. Farmers have complained about the non-Abattoir rate as they are used to the £2.00 per head charge. The Committee approved the new standardised rates, saying that with the low number of non-Abattoir sheep movements, it would be sensible and equitable to charge a single rate. £900.00 in revenue would have been lost in the 2003 season but loss revenue from 2004 would have only been £300.00 so far. Nearly 7,000 sheep have been moved to the Abattoir this season.

A proposal to increase FIGAS fares by 10% has prompted the Standing Finance Committee to look at a breakdown of passengers’ flying. Nearly 9,000 passengers flew last year and only 7.8% were Camp residents. Committee members today requested a break-down of passengers according to different fares paid and the number of Stanley Residents who use the service. The numbers of passengers using the service has increased by 377 since 2002.

HARBOUR, SHIPPING AND FISHING NEWS:

Trawlers Aurora 2 and Pratadina 28 are in collecting licences to fish for Skate. The Tamar arrived in early this morning and is alongside East Jetty and Fisheries are expecting Theralimas to come in later today to transfer observers.

(100X Transcription Service)