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It has been announced in London that Their Royal Highnesses, The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall will visit Montserrat on Saturday 8th March as part of a Caribbean tour. They will arrive on a chartered luxury yacht, The Leander and during their visit they will open the new Public Market in Little Bay.The tour, which will take in Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucuia, Jamaica as well as Montserrat, is expected to reinforce British ties with the three independent Commonwealth countries as well as the UK Overseas Territory of Montserrat. It is hoped that the tour will promote sustainable development, environmental protection and opportunities for youth.
Other than the opening of the new market, it is expected that the Royal couple will visit the MVO, look at damage to Plymouth from suitable vantage poionts, visit the Lookout Community Centre to meet some of the elderly people who use the facility and attend a reception at the Cultural Centre. The Prince of Wales will also inspect a military parade drawn up in his honour close to the Goodlife Restaurant.
The Prince of Wales is heir to the British throne as he is the eldest son of Her Majesty The Queen and Prince Philip and was born in Buckingham Palace on 14 November 1948. Christened Charles Philip Arthur George he was invested as Prince of Wales by The Queen on 1 July 1969 in a colourful ceremony at Caernarfon Castle in Wales. The Prince of Wales followed a naval career and during his final months in the Royal Navy took command of HMS Bronington. He last visited Montserrat when in the Royal Navy.The Prince of Wales is a very keen environmentalist and he has developed an 18 strong group of charities known as The Prince's Charities who raise over £110 million per year to support their causes.
The Prince of Wales has two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry from his first marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales who died in a car crash on 31 August 1997. He married Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles on 9 April 2005 and after the wedding she became known as The Duchess of Cornwall.
The Duchess is Patron or President of a number of charities and attends events to support them. In 2006 - 2007, The Duchess attended over 220 engagements with over a quarter of them overseas. She is a great supporter of Soroptomists, a worldwide women's organisation with over 95,000 members world wide.
Two new Ministers of Government were sworn in on Friday 22 February by His Excellency the Governor at his offices in Brades.This follows the revocation of the appointment of the former Ministers of Agriculture and Communications & Works.
The swearing in ceremony saw former Chief Minister, Hon Reuben T Meade sworn in as the new Minister of Agriculture and the Hon Charles Kirnon sworn in as the new Minister of Communications and Works.
The coalition government now in place has the Hon. Dr Lowell Lewis as Chief Minister, Hon. Reuben T Meade and Hon Charles Kirnon as Ministers of Agriculture and Communications & Works respectively and Hon Dr John A. Osborne as Minister of Education. The Hon Roselyn Cassell and Hon Easton Taylor-Farrell will serve as back-benchers in the coalition government. However, it has also been announced that The Hon Dr John A. Osborne will retire as a Minister of Government after over 40 years of service at the end of March and that one of the back-benchers will assume that position.
In the meantime, the Hon Margaret Dyer Howe, the Hon Idabelle Meade and the Hon David S. Brandt will form the opposition in the Legislative Council.
The new Girl Guides headquarters at Davy Hill are beginning to take shape. Construction started in early January at the site adjacent to Garland Hill Home.Monies have been raised for the new building by Girl Guides in North East England, by the Emerald Community Singers through a series of concerts in England, by fund raising efforts by local Girl Guides and some insurance monies from the past.
The contractor, L & M Construction had to overcome the difficult terrain to get the building underway. However some clearing of the site had already taken place from a previous visit of HMS Richmond - a British Navy Ship whose crew members helped to clear up the site.
Chief Guide in Montserrat, Mrs Amelda Winspeare is looking forward to the construction being completed as the Girl Guides and Brownies have had no permenent HQ of their own since the previous one was destroyed by pyroclstic flows from the volcano in Dagenham in 1996.
Photo shows the construction underway at Davy Hill
Children from the island's schools have been learning about the British Royal Family in advance of the Royal visit to Montserrat on 8 March.All the island's Primary Schools were visited by members of staff of the Governor's Office to discuss with the students the background to the visit and the relationship betweem the Prince of Wales and other members of the Royal Family.
Pictures from the previous royal visit (of Princess Ann) were shown to the children from Brades Primary School, Lookout Primary School, St Augustine RC School and Samuel Community Academy. Children from these schools will also take part in a school quiz from 27 February to 5 March.
Photos shows children from Brades School inspecting Royal photos
Montserrat's small farmers are benefitting from a greenhouse project which is providing a number of greenhouses around the island provided from funding obtained from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) Small Projects Fund for Overseas Territories.The Israeli built greenhouses have been erected by farmers and Ministry of Agricultural officials to assist farmers in increasing vegetable production in areas prone to ash.
A greenhouse consultant, Mr Alvin Murray from Jamaica, was on island early February to advise on the construction of the greenhouses and to assist in the planting of crops inside the greenhouses, irrigation systems, and to advise on crop rotation. He held a number of practical sessions with groups of small farmers, horticulturalists and also held a meeting for the general public interested in backyard gardening.
Also on island for the start of the greenhouse project was Mr Philip Bolam the London based Press Secretary of the Royal Commonwealth Agricultural Society who was paying his second visit to Montserrat as part of a tour of the region.
The greenhouse project is being co-ordinated within the Ministry of Agriculture by Mr Claude Browne an Agricultural Extension Officer.
Montserrat's new machine readable passports have been introduced. A ceremony to deliver the first batch of the new passports to applicants was held at the Government Training Centre, situated at the Department of Administration at Government Headquarters, on Friday 22 February.The equipment to produce the passports was supplied by 3M Canada and representing the Company at the ceremony was Mr Juan Marti-Aguilar. He had previously trained Department of Administration staff to use the new equipment for issuing the passports and several members of staff were presented during the ceremony with IDIS User Training Certificates. He also presented the Hon Chief Minister, Dr Lowell Lewis with the IDIS Licence Certificate on behalf of the Government of Montserrat.
The first 20 new passports were issued during the ceremony and were presented by His Excellency the Governor, Mr Pater Waterworth and Dr Lewis. Several children were amongst the first recipients.
At the ceremony, there were words of welcome by Miss Dulcy Jeffers the Executive Officer, Consular Division and opening remarks from Mrs Daphne Cassell, Paermanent Secretary Human Resources.
Montserrat's new style passports cost EC$150 for an adult passport and EC$ for a child's passport.