On 15 September the major contractor to the Gerald's Airport, Lagan International, started work on the runway construction.
Mr Colin Murphy, the Project Manager of Lagan International, told members of the Airport Steering Committee at a meeting held on 24 September that there were two major obstacles that were required to be overcome to install the new 600 metre (1980 feet) runway.
These are the position of the existing helipad, which is in the centre of the proposed runway and the existing road to Drummonds which cuts across the proposed runway. Mr Murphy explained that these therefore needed to be moved as quickly as possible to allow the earthworks to start.
The helipad will be moved to a position immediately behind the new airport terminal building which is nearing completion. This pad should be ready for mid January and this will eventually be used as the aircraft parking apron when the new airport is completed.
Work on a new access road to Drummonds has already commenced and this new road will start opposite La Collage Restaurant and finish in the vicinity of the Cockpit Bar just past the present Helipad. It will pass through an 80 metre long tunnel under the runway. The existing road to the helipad and Drummonds will eventually become a Cul de Sac.
Several residents along this road are in the process of being moved to make way for the airport construction. The new road and tunnel are expected to be in use by mid-February and the work will include the movement of utility services to the area.
The new airport, which is expected to be finished on 10, October 2004 will cost in excess of EC$44 million and is to be jointly funded by DFID and the European Union. DFID's contribution is the biggest single investment in Montserrat according to their London based Desk Officer Tim Hatton who attended the Steering Committee Meeting.
The airport will be equipped for day / night landing and will require 220, 000 cubic metres of material to be cut away - a mammoth task. 195, 000 cubic metres of this material will be used for filling and compaction as well as for building embankments. The work includes the filling of the famous pond at the rear of the old Gerald's Park.
Once the new apron and terminal building are in use, the existing terminal building will be converted to airport offices. In addition, a new airport fire station is to be constructed on the site and a perimeter fence built.
HMS Manchester, the current Atlantic Patrol (North) British Navy Ship, paid a successful visit to Montserrat between 16 and 18 September. The ship, under the command of Commander Richard Ingram R.N. has been sailing in Caribbean waters since July. She is a Type 42 Guided Missile Destroyer launched in 1980 and completely refitted in 2000. Her visit to Montserrat was described as a courtesy call allowing its crew of almost 250 men & women rest & relaxation on the island.
However, it was not all play as HMS Manchester provided volunteers for a number of community projects. These included moving the Montserrat Branch of the British Red Cross into its new Headquarters at Brades from its temporary premises in Lookout, distributing bottled water with Emergency Department Staff, and repairing radio and generating equipment at various sites. Crew members also presented a cheque to the Montserrat Red Cross from proceeds of a charitable fund raising event on board.
The crew provided a football team and they took on a Montserrat X1 under the new floodlights at Brades. The team from HMS Manchester won the match 4 - 3 with a last minute goal. A diving team also took part in a recreational dive off Carrs Bay.
H.E. the Governor hosted a cocktail party at Government House in honour of the ship's visit and during the evening Commander Ingram and His Excellency exchanged plaques.
Commander Ingram, who was born in Derbyshire in England, hosted a Press Conference on board HMS Manchester and told reporters that the principal role of his ship was in the area of drugs interdiction in Caribbean waters, and response in the aftermath of disasters. To this end, Commander Ingram was briefed by MVO and Emergency Department officials on the status of the volcano and the exclusion zones.
The Montserrat Branch of the British Red Cross has moved into its new headquarters above the Royal Bank of Canada in Brades.
The new office was blessed at a short ceremony on Monday 22 September just before opening for business for the first time in the new building.
The Montserrat Red Cross lost its previous headquarters in Dagenham to pyroclastic flows in the volcanic eruptions of recent years and has had to operate from a series of temporary buildings since that time.
The new building, designed by Ken Cassell and constructed by L & M Construction, cost in the region of EC$1 million and is in a prime position in Brades. The Royal Bank of Canada is leasing the downstairs of the building and is operating its local branch from there.
The move into the new building was facilitated by volunteer crew members from HMS Manchester which visited the island in mid September. Until then, the Red Cross had been operating from their Community Centre building in Lookout. It is expected that this building will now be made available to the Lookout community to be used as the area's official Community Centre and children's playground.
The Montserrat Red Cross is a voluntary organisation and is one of the island's longest established NGO's. It has some 70 volunteers led by Mrs Lystra Osborne and currently employs one full time member of staff. It works in the area of HIV / AIDS Education, Counselling, care of the elderly, First Aid, and Post Disaster Relief amongst others.
The telephone number of the new headquarters in Brades is (664) 491 2699.
For the latest fee table for UK entry clearance fees please refer to the link to the Fee Table
The DFID funded project to clean ash from areas in Salem and its environs following the 12, July collapse of the dome at the Soufriere Hills Volcano will have an English Project Manager.
The person named is Mr Melvyn Tebbutt, MBE and he is no stranger to Montserrat as he oversaw the rebuilding of the old St John's Primary School into the Glendon Hospital several years ago. His MBE was for services to Montserrat in seeing that project successfully completed.
Mr Tebbutt paid a preliminary visit to Montserrat in mid September to look at the scale of the problem and to plan the operations to remove the ash which is concentrated in the Salem, Flemmings, Friths, Happy Hill, Old Towne, Olveston, and Woodlands areas.
The ash moving project, estimated to cost over EC$12 million, will probably take in the region of over three months to complete and will be both labour and machine intensive.
It is expected that Mr Tebutt who returned to London to brief DFID officials there on the scale of the project will return to Montserrat before the start of October to oversee the substantive project.
The U.S. Government's Bureau of Citizenship & Immigration Services (BCIS) recently announced that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Montserratians who went to the USA because of the volcanic crisis is to be extended for a further year.
The announcement said that "The Secretaries of Homeland Security and Department of State have recently examined conditions in Montserrat and found a further extension is warranted due to the continued threat of further volcanic eruption, the serious health risks from volcanic ash, and the lack of infrastructure, including no functioning airport".
It is thought that around 325 Montserratians have sought TPS and this extension will carry them through to the end of August 2004. TPS allows those persons protected to live and work in the USA but they must receive advanced permission to return to the USA before travelling abroad.
From 2 October 2003 new fees will be in place for British Pasports when applied for from Montserrat.
From that date, an Adult passport with 32 pages will cost £56.50, an Adult 48 page passport will cost £67.70 and a child's passport will cost £36.50.
The Government of Montserrat imposes in addition, a EC$20 handling fee.
British Passport application forms are available from the Governor's Office in Olveston and from the Department of Administration's Office at Government HQ in Brades. All completed application forms for British Passports should be returned to the Department of Administration.
Montserrat's two Chevening Scholars for the academic year 2003 / 2004 left the island recently to pursue courses of study in the United Kingdom.
Ms Cheverlyn Williams, a teacher at the Montserrat Secondary School, is to study for an MA in Information Technology, Multimedia & Education at the University of Leeds in the north of England. Her course started on 24 September.
Miss Sherree Jemmotte of the Legal Department is to study for the LLM at Queen Mary College at the University of London and she left here on 18, September.
Both young ladies are recipients of British Chevening Type B awards, which are prestigious awards for Higher Degrees. The Chevening Scholarships are provided from a mixture of Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) and private sector monies raised in Britain. Cable & Wireless have long been a major financial supporter of the awards.
His Excellency the Governor, Mr Anthony Longrigg and Mrs Longrigg hosted a cocktail party at Government House to wish 'bon voyage' to the two scholarship winners.
Britain's Channel 4 TV Station and Station WGBH of Boston are joining together to plan a major TV series called "War in the Caribbean". It is to be filmed over the next 12 months and is being produced by award winning British programme makers who wish to tell the story of those who fought in the region in the second world war.
The series will feature contributions from the men & women of the Caribbean who fought with their British allies in World War 2. It will tell for the first time, the untold stories of the war in the Caribbean and how much the allies owed a debt to the Caribbean people who took part.
The producers believe that there is a great untold story of bravery and sacrifice from many thousands of people who fought and resisted the Nazis in the Caribbean.
The producers are appealing to Caribbean people who lived through those days to tell their stories of how the war brought people together to fight one enemy. Other queries are on how the arrival of British & American troops in the region influenced Caribbean society; did the legacy of war change the region forever and did the war affect the relationship between British and Caribbean peoples?
Consultants to this project include the Associate Producer, Humphrey Metzgen a former parachute officer in the British Army who now lives in Barbados and Major General John Graham (retired) who is one of the pre-eminent military historians on the involvement of Caribbean forces in the Second World War, who also lives in Barbados.
Anyone in Montserrat with a story to tell is being urged to contact Humphrey Metzgen in Barbados by calling him at 246 419 2333 as the story in the planned series will be told in people's own words, photographs and recollections.
The Rotary International District Governor for their District 7030, Mr Jean - Claude Blancaneaux of French Guyana, visited Montserrat on 23, September 2003.
Rotary District 7030 comprises (in alphabetical order) Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, French Guyana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Martinique, Montserrat, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad & Tobago.
The District Governor met with members of the local Rotary Club over lunch on that day to discuss ongoing projects and plans and later in the day paid a courtesy call on His Excellency the Governor Mr Anthony J. Longrigg CMG.
Accompanying Mr Blancaneaux on his courtesy calls were Mr James Hixon, Past President and Mrs Susan Edgecombe, the current President of the Montserrat Rotary Club.
A group of students from the Geography Department of Loughborough University in the UK met with H.E. the Governor, Mr Anthony J. Longrigg CMG at the Governor's Office meeting room on Tuesday 23 September 2003.
The students whose ages range from 21 to 24 were visiting the island as part of the third year of their University Degree Courses. They were accompanied by Lecturers Dr Tracey Skelton and Dr Joe Bollard. Dr Skelton visited Montserrat herself as part of her studies several years ago and was based in Harris' at the time.
The group were staying at the former Defence Force Barracks in Parcel Piece which have now been converted to Evacuation Shelters. The students were looking at the social and cultural aspects of the volcanic crisis and redevelopment of the island in the post volcanic phase.
In their meeting with the Governor, the students were briefed on His Excellency's role in Montserrat, the FCO's involvement in the development process, and the volcanic crisis in general. A period of questions and answers followed the briefing which led to lively discussions.
The students, who left the island on 26, September were also invited to a cocktail party at Government House.
The Foreign Office is pleased to announce that the US has granted an extension of its Visa Waiver Programme to holders of non-machine-readable British passports travelling to the United States.
This means that all British passport holders, including children, travelling to the USA under the Visa Waiver Programme will need their own machine-readable passport with effect from 26 October 2004, rather than the original date of 1 October 2003.
From 26 October 2004 anyone without a machine-readable passport, including children who are currently on a parent's passport, will need a visa to travel to the USA.
Further details on entry requirements for the USA can be obtained from the FCO Website
NOTE
All British Passports issued in the UK, and the vast majority of those issued at British Missions overseas, are machine-readable. By the end of 2003 all full British passports issued overseas will be machine-readable. In the intervening time we have made arrangements for all passport applications received in Posts currently not able to issue machine-readable passports to be processed in the UK or at the nearest Mission with machine-readable equipment.
It is estimated that 200,000 people currently hold non machine-readable passports. A British passport is machine-readable when the foot of the personal data page (at the back of the passport) bears two lines of print. If there are no printed lines of text the passport is not machine-readable.
The Governor's Office has a new Accounting Officer. She is 23 year-old Miss Denise Silcott who has transferred from the Chief Minister's Office.
Miss Silcott joined the Civil Service in January 2002 from the Royal Bank of Canada where she was a Bank Clerk.
Miss Silcott is an active member of MONFEST's Queen Show Committee and played an active role in the formation of the National Youth Parliament.
Miss Silcott replaces Miss Alex Ackie who has proceeded overseas to start her nursing training.
The newly formed Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) has now released the full report of its meeting 5-7 May 2003. Their findings are in two parts:
Previous reports can be accessed using the links further down this page.
The report from the two independent observers who attended the SAC meeting, Dr. Jean-Christophe Komorowski of the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), and Dr. Robert I. Tilling, U. S. Geological Survey, is also now available:
- Main Report;
- Appendix 1;
- Appendix 2;
- Appendix 3.
The Volcano Risk Assessment Panel (RAP) published two addenda to their last full Scientific Assessment of September 2002:
To see the latest Risk Map Click Here.
In an effort to ensure that reports made by the United Kingdom under the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) are publicised as widely as possible they are accessible on this website. For the full version of the UK's 15th report under this Convention please click here: 15th Report;
For the observations on this report by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination click here: CERD Observations:
For the UK's replies to these observations which constitute the 16th report please click here: 16th Report.
The 16th report is being updated for an examination by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on 6 -7 August. An updated version will be on this website when available.
Hard copies of the reports are available at the Governor's Office, Public Library, Attorney General's Chambers and the Office of the Clerk of Council.
The synthesis report on human rights issues in the OTs produced by Social Development Direct is now available. Click the link to access as a Word document: SDD Synthesis Report
There are also several annexes to this report:
- Annex 2: Civil Society Organisations in the OTs
- Annex 3: UK and Regional Human Rights Organisations
- Annex 4: Terms of Reference for Project Officer
- Annex 5: Human Rights contact points in the OTs
- Annex 6: Thematic Recommendations
- Annex g: Montserrat
Readers may care to see these two photos taken of Government House as it was in the pre-volcano days and how it looks in recent times (photo is from 2002).
For a full listing of all press releases, including those related to Entry into the Evacuation Zone, please go to the Press Releases Page.
There is an updated list of links relevant to Montserrat on this website. To check out the new information click 'Links' at the top of this page or Here
