ZJB News Wednesday September 26th 2001

Acting Chief Minister/Minister of Communications & Works, Dr. Lowell Lewis, Discussing Temporary Airstrip & Other Current Issues on Radio ZJB – Wednesday Evening HS: Good evening listeners. Welcome to ZJB Radio, this live broadcast. In the studio with us this evening is the acting Chief Minister, Dr. Lowell Lewis. Dr. Lewis is here to talk about a number if issues tonight, not only about the airport, which is the topic of discussion at this time but he’ll also touch on some other issues. But we know that the airport issue is perhaps the most pressing and the debate has heated up somewhat over the past several weeks or so. Good night to you Dr. Lewis.
LL: Good evening Herman. Good evening to all brothers and sisters in Montserrat. Also, good evening to Lionel, our Press Officer who is sitting with me tonight.
HS: Dr. Lewis I know that we should start with the airport and would like our listeners to know that they can join this discussion and you have two telephone numbers accessible to you: 491-7227 and 491-9064 and you can call with your questions.
Let us start with the airport. I know that you would like to start with an opening statement at least.
LL: Actually, before we start with the airport I just want to say that this is an expression of what we promised to do: to keep the people of Montserrat informed and have a continuing dialogue with them on all issues.
And as you know, we have a new Press Officer who has initiated a weekly program to start next Tuesday called, Let the People Know.
In this program, the Ministers will take turns at giving a recorded interview to bring people up to date about what is going on in their ministries.
In addition, we are having on Wednesdays, as we started today an: Ask Your Government program, which will involve a member of our government team (not necessarily a minister) coming in at 9 o’clock to have a chat with Basil for those people who listen to ZJB in the daytime and then again at 8 o’clock at night for those people who listen at night.
So I hope that the general public will appreciate this opportunity to be kept up to date on what’s going on in government and also an opportunity to interact with us and ask questions and get our side of things.
As you know, our new policy is to just make sure that this is a people’s radio that allows expression of all views but I think it’s important for there to be a balance.
And the government certainly needs to give itself a chance to counter misinformation or to give our point of view when necessary.
You did say we should start with the airport. Perhaps you would like to start by asking me a question and let me know what is you think the people would want to know about the airport at this time.
HS: Well I think what the people would like to know is why we are going ahead, or why have we chosen Geralds as a site for the airport?
LL: We have chosen Geralds as a site for the short-term, temporary solution of an airstrip because it’s, at the present time, the only option that we the people of Montserrat have to follow.
I mean, it’s been heard several times. This debate is ongoing for several years. Before the election we actually stated that we wanted to have an airport in Montserrat that was large enough to take a Dash-8 because only that size of airport would be consistent with a growing economy and provide enough revenues to make us viable.
And, in fact, we knew before the election that the decision had been made about Geralds being the site and also that there was a deadline for a decision to be made so that the $10 million, which was available from the European Union, would not be lost.
We came into office determined to try and change that decision, determined to see if we could get the British government, DFID, to change the decision from being at Geralds to putting it down, to putting the strip at an alternative site which could be extended and be the site of a permanent airstrip in the future.
We found several things, on coming into office, information that we did not know about before coming into office. I was not fully aware of all the requirements for getting licensed from the International Civil Aviation Authority.
We found out, for instance, that certain prerequisite studies—wind studies, meteorological studies, flight performance tests, noise assessment tests, are absolutely necessary and, not only necessary, but necessary for prolonged periods at locations being considered for a long-term, for permanent strips.
The other factors were the cost. When we found out that the estimates for a strip at Thatch Valley were going to be about $300 million, the CRM Group (the Committee for Redevelopment group) did some very good work and prepared an option, which suggested that we could get a strip down at Old Quaw for $53 million but that estimate has not been agreed to by the International Civil Aviation Authority.
And apart from that we also know that up to this time we have no information whatsoever about wind conditions down at Old Quaw or Thatch Valley.
So, even though they are proposed sites, we have no information about the likelihood of them being proven to be acceptable whereas, at least, there is some preliminary data available from Geralds through the fact that operations have been taking place there for the last two or three years.
I think that that preliminary statement, more or less, explains to the people (it repeats what I said this morning) why our government eventually came to the decision that we should choose the short-term solution and to go ahead with the airport project at Geralds providing and, of course, as long as the prerequisite tests, which are to be done, show satisfactory results.
And we expect to have results available by about May or June next year.
HS: Now you mentioned the deadline for drawing down the funds. You also mentioned the cost factor. I’m interested more than anything else in the safety issue. And there is a general feeling or some persons are not quite certain that Geralds, in fact, would be safe. I know that you said that the wind studies are being done but what can you do to convince people that Geralds will be safe to put down an airstrip?
LL: Well, as I said, we took very seriously the concerns expressed by local pilots about turbulence or whatever factors which would make it difficult for Geralds to be used and that is why we have insisted: that we must have these prerequisite studies, which will look at wind turbulence, variations induced by temperature or cloud cover and so on; that we have these tests done by an independent authority under supervision of the International Civil Aviation Organization; that these tests will be – the results will be available to us before the construction goes forward.
As I said, based on information that’s already available, our advisors are of the opinion that the results will, in fact, make it possible to proceed with the strip.
But what I am making sure is that if the results suggest that we should exercise caution of any kind, that we can look and say, look we have this alternative site to look at and that is what I’m working at.
Hopefully, by the time the information is available, we’ll also have some preliminary data for down at Old Quaw or the Thatch Valley area.
HS: There, however, seems to be some kind of conclusion that the airport would be at Geralds even before the studies are completed.
So my question is: after all these studies have been completed and Geralds is found to be not a safe place for an aircraft to land, then what next? What will be the next step by the government?
LL: Well I’ve just said that I have… One thing I’m pleased about our present activity is that if that result comes, that we have another option. That is assuming that the studies at the other location are any better.
HS: But you also said that you have other constraints.
LL: That’s right. We have to accept that it is quite possible that there are no sites in Montserrat suitable for a permanent airstrip.
HS: No site suitable, taking into account, the cost?
LL: It is quite possible that after all… It is possible that you could do wind studies and flight performance tests and the results come back and said, we’ve done tests at Blakes, Geralds, Old Quaw and Thatch Valley and in the International Civil Aviation Organization’s opinion, they may say they don’t consider any of them satisfactory. I’m hoping that never happens but you cannot assume what the results of your studies will be.
HS: Let us assume that Geralds is unsafe and Old Quaw, for example, is safe.
LL: I’ll tell you quite simply. If as you say Geralds is unsafe, an airport will not be built there.
What we’ll have to do, if a decision is made that Geralds is not safe for an aircraft (and I think it is very unlikely) that we will have to opt for an improved heliport and have long-term helicopter operations.
HS: Now listeners, you are listening to a live program on various issues and our guest this evening is Dr. Lowell Lewis. He is the acting Chief Minister also the Minister of Communications & Works, the lead ministry on the development of an airport here on Montserrat.
Now, Dr. Lewis, apart from the wind factor, there is also the length of the runway. Even if Geralds is safe, doesn’t the length makes it inadequate?
LL: Yes. Well the length proposed, 500 meters, is a short airstrip and that is why the experience with aircraft suggests that it is going to be limited to aircraft of a certain type: Islanders and under certain conditions, Twin Otters.
HS: We’ll get back to that because we don’t want to lose this call. Good evening. I think we lost it, so you can continue.
LL: Yes. As I said the flight performance studies will be done for a variety of aircraft, which will tell us what aircraft such a strip of that size or length will tolerate.
HS: But basically we are looking at two types of aircraft. We are looking at a 9-seater and we are also looking at a Twin Otter, aren’t we?.
LL: Yes.
HS: Now, it has been said that the Twin Otter is no longer being produced.
LL: Yeah, they are no longer being produced. There are other aircraft actually like some Cessnas and one or two other aircraft which can also land safely on a 500-meter strip but you’re quite right.
The present plans are based on the assumption that we will be able to operate a 20-seater Twin Otter in and out of Montserrat and that is why one of the requirements we’ve stated is that the flight performance studies should confirm that a 20-seater Twin Otter will be able to land safely, fully loaded in Montserrat.
HS: Now listeners, if you wish take part in this discussion or if you wish to ask Dr. Lewis any particular question (it doesn’t have to be on the airport, per se but we are discussing that at this point in time) you can call in at 491-7227 or 491-9064.
Now, isn’t it not true that this length of runway has been… Well, the ICAO, in fact, says, and I quote, “the proposed runway length of 500 meters is insufficient for operations of the Twin Otter” (which is the 20-seater you just mentioned) “in conventional mode with payload, with no refueling availability, etc.” meaning to me (this is my interpretation) that the Twin Otter, at best, can only come perhaps half full.
So where does that leave us, back to perhaps a 9-seater again? I mean, we are looking at the options of bringing passengers here safely but is seems to me that the ICAO is saying that a Twin Otter can perhaps only come here like, perhaps half-full.
LL: I don’t remember that part of the Report in detail. I know that it was recommended that the length be extended by at least another 60 meters and that is being taken into account plus there was also a recommendation that the width of the strip be increased from 30 meters to 45 meters. But as I have said, the decision to proceed with this temporary solution of an airstrip is dependent, very much, is very much linked to the decision that the flight performance studies (which are to be performed) indicate that we can operate a Twin Otter in and out of Montserrat safely.
HS: Now I’m going to ask you a question based on what the Chief Minister said. In fact, he said that putting an airstrip at Geralds (even a temporary airstrip) will, in fact, help to boost tourism. Now, how can building a runway that can only accommodate a 9-seater or a Twin Otter actually going to help the tourism in Montserrat more so than the ferry, now? At least 30 people came in yesterday on the ferry. We can expect, perhaps that amount to come in the Twin Otter or a 9-seater.
LL: Yes. Well it’s common knowledge that our intention (it’s still our intention) and our expressed desire was for an airport that can accommodate a Dash-8 but when you have to make difficult decisions and compromise you compromise on the understanding that what you get is better than nothing. And if you have a Twin Otter that is carrying, say, 15 passengers and it makes four flights a day, that’s 60 passengers.
That is four times the number of people that come in to Montserrat at the present time on the helicopter.
That’s four flights a day and you know you can actually have a flight every hour if you wish. So there is a capacity for up to, let’s say, 8 or 10 flights a day. So the argument that it will not improve the number of arrivals is not correct.
One of the reasons I have been able to live with (and I think it is very important) being part of a government is that we are able to justify and argue and justify any decision that we as a government make jointly.
But one of the reasons that I am prepared to live with it is that I see it as part of the process of getting to where we want to be, which is to eventually have a strip that allows the landing of larger aircraft at a time when we have information which allows us to proceed, information and money that allows us to proceed with a longer strip at a permanent site.
HS: How long these studies, the wind tests and so forth are expected to last and can it be realistic to expect an airstrip at Geralds let us say by the end of 2003?
LL: Yeah, we should have it before the end of 2003.
HS: Some people, including the CRM, feel that once the British government spends $40 million (and I am assuming that this is what the construction would cost), once they spend this kind of money on a temporary airstrip (keeping in mind you just said that this is more or less a stepping stone to something much better) that they would not be inclined to spend significantly more on an airstrip of our choice that we really would have preferred? Now, that’s a sound argument, isn’t it?
LL: It’s not a sound argument because we must never assume that we always have to get somebody else to do something for us and we have to assume and have the desire to get to a position where we can arrange the financing for something on our own.
And certainly, not accepting an airport at all is not going to help us whereas if we accept the short-term solution that allows us to build our tourist product, allows to build the business and generate revenues to take us at least out of grant-in-aid and able to access loans, then we can ourselves finance the airport at a permanent location later on.
The other thing that having a short-term solution does is that it gives us time to actually make the permanent solution affordable.
First of all, we’re going to have to wait for the necessary studies and then we are going to have to work at reducing the cost of the permanent site—reducing the cost of us getting an airstrip say down at Thatch Valley or Old Quaw.
I believe it’s quite obvious that if we already had a paved road, electricity and water down at Old Quaw that it would not have been difficult to convince the British government to actually put a strip down there.
And this is where the CRM people and all the landowners can actually help us achieve that goal. If people had been more cooperative and the owners of the land for the road all the way down there had come forward and said, look this is a piece of paper that say, we have given up the land necessary for the access road—that would have been a major step.
If the people who own the land down at that area had come forward and said, here we are, this is the land that we think would be useful for a permanent airport and we wish to donate it to the people of Montserrat, then no problem.
We would have been halfway there but that did not happen. So we have to go with what we have.
HS: Let us see if we have a caller, our first caller, good evening. Caller: Good evening Herman, Honorable Minister. If you have taken a decision and had to eat humble pie (quoting an earlier program this morning) are you not therefore defending a situation which you were forced into? And isn’t therefore fair to have our benefactors on such a public forum like this program to answer us? Isn’t that really the principle of democracy? That’s my first question.
And the second one is: this morning someone made an allusion to DFID being like terrorists in Montserrat and you correctly said that the person was wrong but aren’t we seeing more and more the limitations of government regarding the decision-making processes in Montserrat? Those are my two questions.
HS: Thank you very much. LL: The first question was basically: shouldn’t the people of Montserrat be questioning DFID and asking for their explanations? As I said, that can always happen. ZJB can invite a member of the DFID staff to come in and share their opinions with them and I think that their answers will be the same answers they gave to us: that there is a limited budget and that they don’t have the money, they are not prepared to allocate the money needed to do a strip at the other locations.
I think one of the big problems is that in all my discussions with many of the consultants who come here is they tell you up front that they see Montserrat will never be economically viable and that there is no justification whatsoever for spending that kind of money in an island of 5,000 people because that is their opinion.
They might even say that $40 million is actually… cannot be justifiable in Montserrat. And I usually take my time in sitting down and explaining to them why I believe Montserrat is economically viable and why we, the new government, are determined and intend to take us out of grant-in-aid by the year 2005 and they look at me with a blank face.
And as I said, personally, I would not have been interested in coming to Montserrat and becoming part of a government if we were not convinced that we had the ability to achieve that goal.
What we are finding, having gotten into government is that there are a lot of obstructions and things are being done to literally deliberately stop us achieving that goal of becoming economically viable and of getting out of grant-in-aid.
And we are having to work around these obstructions and continue to press to break down the barriers which are in fact are hindering us. I hope I’ve answered the caller’s questions.
HS: Well I hope so. If not, he can always call back. But I should tell you that DFID’s response has always been that they are not elected officials so they are not entitled to answer questions from the public. Maybe you can perhaps encourage them to come on one of these programs.
LL: Well, there is a little bit of a change already because there will be aired next Monday, an interview which I did with a DFID official, which will be shown on Channel 5—Local Access at 8 o’clock on Monday.
HS: But again, that’s a taped interview so there is no opportunity whatsoever for the public to ask questions.
LL: No. Well, as I said I think you should continue to invite them to come and talk to the public.
HS: Now you spoke (perhaps not for the first time) and just getting off the topic just a little bit, just for a little moment about obstructions and deliberate attempts to derail the government, to put it in my own words there.
What exactly are you referring to? And how are people trying to derail or deliberately trying to obstruct the government in achieving its goals?
LL: Well, you know that we have a system of consultancies, strategy documents, steering committees that tend to just delay many, many things. To cut a long story short, you know that last year we had very few projects done and since coming into office, this government has been able to tackle these problems, overcome many of the obstacles so that we now have something like nine projects ongoing.
Just to bring people up to date: as you know we have the fire station, the police headquarters, the LDA office, the nursery school at Lookout, the sheltered housing at Lookout, the community center at Lookout, the Montserrat volcano observatory, the St. Johns district clinic, the Emergency Communications warehouse and project on top of Silver Hills.
In addition, we have the football complex, the multi-million dollar football complex (most of it is being funded by FIFA but at least our government has contributed $25,000 towards the access road and the earthworks).
But it’s our approach to solving problems and getting things happening that’s allowed all of these projects to come on stream and be actively ongoing now.
In addition our staff at Public Works are currently engaged in preparing for the operating theatre, the warehouse at Port Authority, the Community College for Salem, the media center for Radio Montserrat, the refurbishment of St. Peter’s clinic and so on.
So we have a lot of things which are ongoing. And, my added approach has been trying to bring forward the expected time for the start of these projects by up to a year. You have a question?
HC: Yes, good evening. Caller: Good evening again. Thanks for the attempt to answer the question. Maybe I’m asking for you to validate the existence of a government. If you are saying that DFID makes these responses, and evidently, you are using other words that were repeated by a Minister from a former administration: hands are tied; if there is no money, there is no money.
What can the government do if the people of Montserrat say, we would like this and yet, you cannot move ahead? Am I asking too much of a pointed question? Am I asking you to validate your very office?
LL: No, no. I think you are pointing out problems that have existed and I was in the process of actually explaining how we are overcoming these problems.
It’s a question of facing up to people and pointing out their errors and making… I remember one of the first things we did, I did on coming into office, was writing a letter asking for the awarding authority on an advert, for the awarding authority…
The adverts read: awarding authority, DFID, on behalf of the Government of Montserrat and I said, no, if it’s going to be something to do with Montserrat, the awarding authority should be Government of Montserrat. There’s no need for DFID to be the awarding authority of a contract.
In other words, it is necessary for government to, if it has the ability to take control of the decisions relating to activities in Montserrat. And already we see, for instance, that the contracts for the helicopter and the ferry for this year are going to be first time awarded and managed by the Government of Montserrat.
The airport project is actually going to be managed by the government of Montserrat in that we are going to be the people involved in selecting the contractors for the design, construction and so on.
What you have to do is make all of your staff more efficient in getting the projects approved. We have a series of what I call, well, incompetence is the only way you can describe it because if you have a project memorandum going up to London and coming back to Montserrat after three months of delay saying, this project memorandum is unsatisfactory, we need to know, this, this, this, this, this, it means that the persons preparing and sending forward the project memorandum have failed and they have cost us a lot of money.
And I already said earlier that I just could not understand how we had something like six projects which had been designed for prices well above their budget and even though the cost of the projects were known to be above budget, they were still put out to tender.
And when they came back at over budget, then nothing happened, you know, the buildings couldn’t be built. So we had to start from scratch again, go redesign the buildings and adjust them and then go back to tender.
So the delays were caused by these sorts of bureaucratic and technical errors and these have been very costly errors because it means that buildings which were not built last year now have to be built this year. So we lost the money which was available for them for last year. I mean, I have…
One of the problems that we keep facing is the requirement for strategy documents and we have to keep making the point… Right now, we came into office knowing that the British government had just given $40 million for housing over the next five years. Up to now, we haven’t had one red cent of that $40 million because we are struggling to get a strategy document passed. Now, you don’t need a strategy document to give permission for money to be spent to build houses for people who are in shelters. You don’t need a strategy document to make a decision to build a hostel for people who need it. You don’t need a strategy document to go ahead and start preparing the service lots down at Lookout. They were items of a housing program, which just needs to be approved. So that whether we like it or not, it’s the whole philosophy of you being able to hold somebody back from doing something to get a strategy document.
Another example, for instance, is being told, for instance, that you can’t have this particular road done until you have a strategy document. Now, if you have a residential area and the road is unsatisfactory and it’s got corners that are not big enough and it’s not paved, why do you need a strategy document to tell you that that road needs to be paved, that it needs some asphalt on it?
So I think these are the systems that have actually allowed the delay in release of funding and as a result of the delay in release of funding, they have ground the economy to a halt.
HS: Caller, that answers your question? Caller: Yeah. I just wanted to also make the other input that I can sense from the Honorable Minister’s voice (and I know him quite well) some amount of frustration and the examples he gave previously are incremental ones and that is how we have to chip away in the process.
But for those he later referred to, how do you deal with this bureaucracy? How successful are you?
Although you say, yes these strategy documents are not necessary for what is evidently needed for the development of Montserrat, you don’t need a strategy document to say you need asphalt on the road and we can all agree with that but how do you deal with overcoming that?
LL: Well, I just spoke to the Chief Minister this afternoon and he had discussions today with Miss Clare Short, the Minister responsible for DFID and he said he was very pleased with the discussion, that he was able to make these very same points to her and that she reassured him that she will do whatever is necessary to overcome the bureaucratic obstructions which seem to be stifling the economy in Montserrat. So, in a way, the only way to deal with it is for us to deal with it in a political way and to go directly to the highest level and to get our message across. Caller: Thank you.
HC: Thank you very much caller. You were going on your merry way discussing all the different projects. I don’t know if you finished all of those or you had more. There seems to be quite a few projects but like you said, getting them off the ground seems to be the problem.
LL:Yes, but we are getting them off the ground. As I’ve said, I told you the ones which already started. I looked at the diagrams for the operating theatre today and I am pleased to say that I think that building will be out to tender before the end of the year.
In fact, one thing I’m going to do tomorrow is to right away draft a letter for the Chief Minister to follow-up with in his – through his discussions in which he got a commitment to improve, to speed up delivery of certain projects and I will send him a letter which he can pass on, which particularly targets things like getting the Community College started right away.
So that there is no further delay in getting the money to purchase the land in Salem that it’s going to be built on so that we can have it open by the end of next year.
I am hoping that he can somehow manage to get a magic wand waived so that the 100% grants available for housing will be released almost immediately so we can go ahead and authorize the construction of several homes.
I don’t know if he was able to bring across the message to the lady of the grossly inadequate monies being made available for roads and road expansion. You know, there was an audit done, a study done which demonstrated that our road program needs something like $20 million over the next 5 years and we’ve been given 3 million, well 3 million development aid for that.
So, hopefully he was able to mention that that particular amount of money is not enough.
It’s been said again and again that the amount of money given is fixed and I have been trying like mad to get agreement that whatever we don’t use in one year is not lost and is carried over to the next year.
Up to now, I have not been able to gain an agreement for that but I think that what more and more officials are accepting is that we must do whatever is necessary to avoid what they call slippage.
Last year we lost $4 million, not dollars, £4 million out of our budgetary aid, which was given to us, was not spent.
The way things are going now I see something like $6 million not being spent.
And if I keep saying that I think that people will respond and say, look for goodness sake, let’s make sure these people in Montserrat don’t lose that $6 million.
HC: Well listeners, we have just about 20 more minutes on this program. If you wish to make a contribution we invite you to call in now: 491-7227 or 491-9064. We started out (well, let me say that our guest, in case you have not recognized his voice as yet, which is hard to imagine) that we are speaking to the Acting Chief Minister, Mr. Lowell Lewis and he is also the Minister of Communications and Works, of course.
And we started out discussing the airport project and we sort of moved along to some other projects which he was mentioning and along the way we touched on one or two other issues as well. Now, while we are on projects, Mr. Lewis, you mentioned a lot of capital projects but one of the observations is that we do not have many projects at all that are sustainable in terms of employment over the long run.
These capital projects would provide employment for three, maybe six months, then after that the projects are finished. How about projects that are more sustainable in terms of employment over a longer period of time?
LL: When we came into office, we said that we had two plans: first of all, to make sure that the economy recovered in the short term and was sustained by the capital projects and housing that was expected to take place.
But then also to focus on creating the activity that would generate employment and revenues to get us out of grant-in-aid. And we have already started to turn our attention to it.
At the moment there is a lot of activity going on relating to the small business development and the consultants are here doing their work but apart from that we, in fact, have been busy looking at ways of getting Montserrat back to earning foreign exchange.
In fact, I have a list of the major business opportunities that we have been working on and moved quite a way along: a water bottling plant, we are actually quite near to setting up 2 water bottling plants, one at Hope and one at Killiekrankie. We are in almost daily dialogue with people who are interested, with people we expect to supply the equipment, and the people expected to market the products for us. And that sort of exercise is likely to result with revenues of almost a million dollars a year.
We are looking at how we can attract back business-- the use of our Radio Antilles license. I think that it is an asset that we can put to use again and we are trying to encourage people to come and look at possible sites so that we can once again get the revenues that that sort of activity will bring to Montserrat.
We all know about the sand mining operation down at Belham which has the potential of bringing in a fair amount of money apart from prolonging the use of the area.
And, we are all living in hope that the volcano will go to sleep, in which case, the sand mining operation could move to Plymouth and use the Plymouth jetty to ship out lots and lots of stuff for a very long time. We have seriously looked at the establishment of quarry products for export, quarry products for Montserrat. Studies have been carried out and it’s been determined that Montserrat has the potential of producing something like 200,000 tons of quarry material on an annual basis for 15 to 20 years with potential revenue of $6 million a year.
So, that’s another area, we are actively working on. We have examined the rocks and found that the material is being described as better than the stuff we get from Martinique.
We have heard about… We all know that the rice factory was once here and it is impossible to say how far we will get with that but we are in the process of giving instructions for an area to be identified and developed to be offered to people who operated that business before. And if they do bring a rice factory back, then that will produce not only work, but a source of revenue.
We believe that we have potential for many agro products. Critical will be getting larger acreage under cultivation and I sit back every day and watch the fields at Silver Hills, knowing that once upon a time that area was full of cotton, full of cotton and potato.
Just a few days ago someone told me that a French company has said they will buy as much cassava powder as we can produce. I have also been told that there are companies who said that they will buy any amount of tea bushes that we produce.
So that we have a potential if we can get around putting in some irrigation and getting more agricultural land under production.
And I am convinced that of the 1400 hundred acres which is lying there unused in the northern part of Montserrat that we should be able to get at least 200 acres of that under actual cultivation at some time.
In addition, we’ve been looking at potential hotel sites. In fact, we’ve had discussions with individuals who have expressed an interest in hotel developments in Montserrat.
It’s true that that is not going to go forward until we have an airport or until they are convinced that we are going to have an airport.
That’s not going to go forward until they are convinced that we can provide activities and facilities for tourists who want to come and have… I think that there is a real possibility of us being able to identify a location for a golf course in the northern area once we can get the irrigation in place again.
I think that, just to give you an idea of the way our government has been thinking, we believe that to just give people homes to live in and roads to drive around on is not satisfactory; and that you should always look at (when you are building a community) at employment producing opportunities.
And just last week, just this week, I’ve had discussions with the Lookout Community Committee and discussed with them the fact that Margarita Bay, which is sitting there as an available beach for the community, if we can get access to it, has the potential of being a place for a hotel site.
I mean, people might say that’s a dream and that you are looking way into the future, but the fact is, it’s a nice lagoon, it’s an area that’s sheltered and secluded and actually would be suitable for a nice little resort, a resort that could employ 50, 100 people.
People say, well why would you think anybody would want to come and put a resort there in 10, 15 years? Simply because Montserrat has sun, sea and friendly people and there will more and more people in the cold climates who want to get away from winters and may want to just come and spend more time in the tropics.
So I believe that we should not compromise any potential hotel site. I’m hoping that my discussions with them will lead to a change in mind about putting certain facilities there.
There are other hotel sites. There’s one at Banks. There are obviously, there’s the one at Little Bay, there are the Little Bay development projects. There are actually parts in Rendezvous Beach or the Rendezvous area, which would be suitable for development.
We also have thoughts about the establishment of light manufacturing activity. We know that, we are convinced that we can build in Montserrat, a tourism product that will bring in a lot -- that will bring us back to what we used to have.
I’m hoping that by the time we complete the new road works in the northern area, taking a road down to Rendezvous Beach, opening up the Cotton road and coming around to Drummonds, that we will have, in fact, a very nice, exciting day tour for visitors to come to Montserrat to drive around Montserrat, to go and see an old volcano, an extinct volcano down at the northern tip, a live active volcano in the southern area.
As I’ve said, there are many opportunities that we have to develop sustainable, revenue-earning activities in Montserrat, but we need the money. We need the money to start with.
And it is programs like these, its discussions like these, which we hope to convince our financing partners to give us the money to extend the jetty so we can have a cruise ship visit, to give us the money so that we can later on get a proper airport down at an area where we can land larger aircraft and there is always e-commerce and offshore banking, which … (1st side of tape ends -- )
…use to bring more Montserratians home, give them work and allow them to enjoy a better quality of life.
HS: Good night. You are on the program. Caller: Doc when say you need the money, you mean you need more than the 75 million pounds?
LL: Oh yes. We’ve said that again and again. We have said to people (not the people at the highest level) that we will be viable only if we get the money to put in place the infrastructure that will allow us to generate revenues to support ourselves.
Caller: So awe no have the money? The 75 million wey dem talk bout, a no Montserrat dem give the money to?
LL: Well, as I said, it is a lot of money but the question is whether it is enough to put in place the infrastructure we need.
But even though we keep saying it is not enough, what we’re also doing is seeing how we can find alternative ways of finding the money.
We are trying to encourage people to build buildings for us.
I spent the last two weeks trying to work out how I am going to get people to build a Port offices building.
We have a whole set of government administration buildings which we don’t have any money for but I am hoping that we entice some people in the private sector to invest in.
And I still am hoping that somehow, we’ll be able to convince the British government that they should give us the money needed to build all the government buildings.
Caller: One thing though: the airport no suitable for down at Geralds Bottom. That a no really a looking into the future and making the island, you know, better.
A you should really think more serious about that, because, I mean, a people you a disturb wey who for so many years and awe got other places dey, awe got machine. So just go in into something beneficial and done because, you know, down a Geralds man, it kind of a, a wha kind of little…
LL: Yeah. Well, I obviously need to come and talk to you because what I say to most people is: put yourself in my position, go through all the different options, try and even go and cut a road yourself, and so on and in the end, you still have to make a decision. You have to make a decision and what you do is you make a decision that will actually be in the benefit of everybody.
Caller: Doc, Doc, a machine mek money, you know.
LL: You think we should just print some?
Caller: And certain time, dem bun the money and mek other money again so, what is big thing about the money? The thing is for people to live one comfortable life and you no go in dey so so so and disturb people. It’s a little bit out of order man. A you go ahead and tink about um again. Me a go ahead and listen to you. Me a kum back again.
HS: Okay, thanks. The disturbance to Geralds, it’s a situation you can’t get away from really. If an airport goes there, people would have to be moved from their homes plus the noise factor, the hospital just above there. It’s something you can’t get away from.
LL: This short-term, temporary solution which (and I mean, I hope the volcano is also a short-term, temporary thing) but …
HS: Good night, you’re on the program. Caller: Good night. I’m listening to your interview with Dr. Lewis and I know this, unfortunately that he seems to pay little emphasis on mobilizing the Montserrat business community in the development of Montserrat, which I think is a very serious mistake.
And to give an example, he was speaking of the water project. Now if you have a water project and you produce water in Montserrat and then you have outsiders market it, maybe he is unaware of the fact that it is the marketing agent who makes the money rather than the producer in most areas and this unfortunately is something that you find, not just in Montserrat but throughout the Caribbean, where we are relying so much on outside help rather than building our own business community because you cannot build a country for foreigners, outsiders.
LL: Yeah. Well, I take his point. In fact, almost all the projects we are looking at have been focusing completely on local people. Where the involvement from outsiders (and in fact the activities we’ve done so far has been almost totally looking at having local Montserratians pilot and be the point agencies in these products) where the outsider’s help has come in is like, for instance, with the water bottle marketing, we simply are going to use people who already have markets in place.
And take last week when I went to Antigua, I discussed with an interested person there who is already producing water for the Antigua market that we could produce water at $2.00 a gallon, which gives him an opportunity, for instance, of actually having a product that he…
We can produce two gallons at $2.00 a gallon and make a large profit for the unit here in Montserrat and he can sell his product, the product, in his market and also make a profit. So this is a simply a way of getting into the system.
We can always do it independently but one of our weakest points is in fact, marketing. Right now, we spent so little money on promoting tourism in Montserrat, promoting export, that we don’t have access to markets.
And I agree with the gentleman who just called in that to be really effective and successful, we will actually eventually have to do most of the marketing ourselves.
But after all, what we are trying to do now is just get started. We are trying to work out systems that will actually get something going. And then that is what we want to do and we intend to get going and we intend to get the businesses going and then gradually expand according to the demands.
HS: Any more questions, caller? Caller: If I may mention further, it may be an error to believe that the Antigua market could really accept very much water. The Antigua market is much too small for that. And if Montserrat were to produce water that would bring in a million dollars per year to Montserrat, that the Antigua market certainly could not handle that much water.
LL: We are not just targeting Antigua. In fact, today I spoke with somebody from St. Croix. Yesterday, I spoke with somebody from St. Thomas and the day before, I spoke with somebody from California who is involved in the cruise ship business.
So, we have these markets. The question is how do you ship the items to these people at a cost which makes it profitable and obviously once we’re into the production, we could send some by containers. But right now we have an opportunity, for instance, of sending 1000 gallons of water a day to Antigua by ferry. So, in fact, if we already have that arrangement and we can simply get that product to Antigua, into the Antiguan market then it’s worthwhile looking at. It’s likely to provide another use for the ferry.
Caller: Would this be bottled water or… ? LL: Yes, it will be bottled water. Caller: It would be all bottled in Montserrat? LL: Yes. One gallon bottles.
Caller: There is another flaw in the general approach that I see: that there is no effort at all, or I should say, minimal effort to integrate the Montserratians abroad in the development effort for Montserrat.
The skills of Montserratians abroad are in many areas that would be of tremendous benefit to Montserratians, Montserrat development or Montserrat production and there’s practically no effort at all to integrate these skills abroad.
Not only that, when you do this, what you realize is a significant development of overseas Montserratians who could then re-invest funds in Montserrat and efforts for transportation and so forth, all of this should be organized by pulling Montserratians abroad in the development process and the Montserrat associations abroad. Any association we have here we can develop a program, for instance, to get investments abroad for transportation to and from Montserrat for any products that we might have, for let’s say, the water product.
HS: Okay, thank you very much caller. LL: Well, in fact, we have people in Montserrat who are there able to help us. I mean the caller is one individual who obviously has a contribution to make to Montserrat. We have in fact been involving Montserratians overseas. In fact, the person from St. Thomas who called me about the water bottling plant is a Montserratian who is working down there in a water bottling plant who wants to come home. And one of my interests has always been setting up a network of Montserrat professionals and a skills base and I actually....
HS: Okay, let’s take this other caller, Dr. Lewis. Caller: Good evening, Dr. Lewis. I was once at a meeting at DFMC or what you call it down Geralds and they talk about the airport and they’re saying (Mr. Ryan, Mr. Cabey and all those men who work at the heliport) they are saying that we have a wind problem of coming in with a plane. And the money that they are going to want to full up Cat Ghaut (or what we call it, Pump Ghaut) and Brimm Ghaut to bring the land back to what it wanted, that amount of money whey dem a going to spend fu full up them place dey, I think that we could get that money and help to go to Old Quaw and get a good airport instead of spending that money and defend these old people wey down there resting their little self and when the time come, you are going to just give them heartache.
Some of them, a we a going to bury them before their time. So I think that we should think about it and the people that were there, they are saying that Geralds is no place to make an airport.
I mean, the helicopter come in and you could see many of the times when the helicopter come in, it come round Redondo and come up or sometimes it have to come up here and come and go lek it a go a de volcano and then come in. So therefore, we have to check and look at the things them and then ting because making an airport there and the plane come in today and tomorrow it can’t come in, it’s still different. All those things we have to look at. And they have consultation and they talk about it many, many times, many meetings we keep at the Defence Force, even to our old Chief Minister, Mr. Osborne was there once and he asked and they give him an answer so I don’t see how we now going to still say that we going to build an airport down by Geralds. I don’t think so.
HS: You live in Geralds? Caller: I’m not living in Geralds but I am an owner of Geralds. HS: Thank you very much.
LL: That’s why we are going to make sure the prerequisite studies are done and at the same time have a contingency plan for alternate sites.
Caller: Well they all talk about it very much there and the men dem that work there and they have studies about it and they’re saying that down there is no place to make an airport. We were even talking about Bentley and the same thing they talk about Bentley, the same thing they talk about Geralds. So, I don’t know.
HS: Thank you very much for calling. Caller: You’re welcome. HS: Okay, bye. Dr. Lewis?
LL: Well, as I said, we have a serious public relations problem which we are going to tackle. And I think, as was said this morning, it’s not enough for us to convince ourselves, we have to convince everybody else and get them to understand why we did what we have done.
HS: That’s right. Good night, you are on the program. Caller: Good night. Which airline or airlines have been identified so far as being willing to provide scheduled commercial service to a temporary airstrip, such as the one being proposed at Geralds?
HS: Which airline has proposed to come into Geralds? Caller: Which airline or airlines have been identified, to date, as being willing to provide scheduled commercial service to a temporary airstrip…
LL: Well, I have the question. I have never been recorded as making a statement about a commercial airline offering services to Geralds. We’ve talked about having air access and arrangements…
Caller: From whom? By whom? Who will be providing the air access?
LL: As we know, there is already in existence, Carib Aviation that has a fleet of Twin Otters and Islanders…
Caller: They’ve expressed willingness?
LL: Well, I’m sure… In fact, I think the Transportation Studies and consultants have actually interviewed them and recorded their comments in the reports.
Caller: You haven’t answered my question, though.
LL: No, I did, I did answer your question, I did say…
Caller: I asked have they expressed a willingness to provide a scheduled commercial service legally by the Civil Aviation Authority’s requirements? Can commercial service be offered at a temporary airstrip?
LL: I don’t think they’ve been asked for a ???. What the plan is that once the airstrip facility is provided, that services will be provided by existing operators who wish to use the facility.
Caller: Then why is it that for the temporary heliport there are no commercial helicopter services being offered if both of them are both termed as temporary?
LL: Actually, there are commercial helicopters that fly into Montserrat every now and then on private charters. It’s just that they are so expensive that they are very rarely used. If you want to charter a helicopter to Montserrat from Antigua, it’s US$800.00, so…
Caller: But based on that same ICAO report their technical person indicated that the heliport was unlicensed and that it needed to be licensed because it offered commercial services, so are we going to end up with the same situation with the so-called, temporary airstrip at Geralds?
LL: No, because, in fact, the ICAO report has specified what things need to be put in place for it to be approved for use by aircraft of different types. Caller: So they will license it?
LL: Well, obviously if we are going to meet the specifications that the ICAO place, they will license it for certain aircraft depending on what the flight performance tests and the criteria that meets each aircraft…
Caller: So based on what said earlier, they will issue a license for 8 months’ worth of study for this temporary airstrip, but would require 5 years worth of studies for a permanent strip? There’s something that doesn’t seem quite right.
LL: What you are saying is not accurate because we are talking about different things. You are talking about… The 5-year requirement – which is in fact what is stipulated for a permanent airstrip which are expected to accommodate long distance flights and large aircraft. That is a standard requirement, I understand.
The regulations for an airstrip – first of all, it has recently been found that as long as the aircraft operators are given information about the airstrip, the aerodromes, and that there are manuals available to the operators that any facility can be used by any operator who wishes to do so.
The issue of insurance or license, for instance, for use by helicopters, any helicopter company that has liability insurance can actually be chartered by passengers to take them anywhere, including remote sites. So, hopefully that will answer your question about whether you need to have a license for a heliport.
Caller: Actually, it doesn’t and I wonder then how many tourists would be willing to fly to an airport that may not be licensed and doesn’t go through the same rigors as for a permanent airport because, you can have a permanent airport that’s only 500 meters.
So again maybe I’m confusing the issue somewhat in terms of temporary versus permanent where the issue might be one of the type of aircraft and the length of the runway.
LL: Well I don’t think you are correct about the number of tourists who would fly on an aircraft out of certain locations because in Barbados, the heliport is next to the port. It’s a small area…
Caller: It’s licensed?
LL: It’s actually acceptable for helicopter landings and takeoff. In Antigua, the tourists, the 200 tourists that use the facility there on a daily basis, the flights don’t operate out of the airport. They have a separate heliport, which is in fact very similar to the one in Montserrat.
Caller: So, are you saying that the heliport in Barbados isn’t licensed, as is the case in Montserrat?
LL: I am not in a position to say whether it’s licensed or not. I am sure it is approved for use, but I cannot say whether or not it’s got a … I literally don’t know. I don’t know if it is licensed for use. It may well be. Caller: Okay, I won’t belabor the issue. Good night. HS: Thank you very much caller. Well Dr. Lewis, it’s wrapping up time I suppose.
LL: Well as I said, I think that … HS: Hold on, let’s take this other call. Good night. Caller: Good night. Dr. Lewis, I can’t help but agree with a friend of mine when he said that with relation to the airport issue you might be speaking with your head and not with your heart. Now, I’m going to read something for you and I want you to tell me if the words sound familiar.
“The completion of an airport for fixed-wing aircraft is an urgent priority. Ideally, a landing strip of 4000 feet capable of accepting American Eagle flights from Puerto Rico is needed for future economic activity.” Does those words sound familiar to you, Doc?
LL: Yes, well I wrote them.
Caller: Good. Now what you are giving us at Geralds will be something like 3,400 feet less than what you have specified we need ideally for economic activity. Do you believe, speak with your heart, Doc, do you believe that 600 meters of airstrip at Geralds could enhance economic activity in Montserrat in any way?
LL Well, I’ve just, in fact, earlier tonight I explained the capacity that an airstrip of that would have including the number of passengers that could be brought in and out in and day, which will be significantly more than we get now.
And as I said to you and the people of Montserrat that in the end, when you have to make choices, you will have to choose that you have to walk before you can run. And if I see this as being the process of walking before I can start run, I will take it.
Caller: Doc. We have heard about wind studies. We have heard about all kinds of studies with regards to an airport. Why aren’t wind studies also done at Thatch Valley, aat Old Quaw, or anywhere else for that matter on Montserrat where it is deemed suitable to put an airstrip? Why the emphasis is wholly and solely on Geralds?
LL: That is why I’m actually – one of the reasons I opted for taking the project as it is because it does include financing to allow us to do studies at the other sites.
Caller: Doc, I’m very sorry but I have to call you naïve because any airstrip that goes into Geralds is what Montserrat will have for the rest of its life, period.
LL: Not if I have anything to do with it.
Caller: Let me ask you the other question though. The majority of people so far in Montserrat (as far as I know and if you are to take a poll, I believe you will find it to be so) they want to see an airport but they do not want to see an airport at Geralds.
What will happen if you point blank come out to our benefactors and say, the people of Montserrat do not want an airport in Geralds and therefore, we are not prepared to accept an airport in Geralds? What will happen, bottom line Doc? Speak to the people.
LL: We’ve actually more or less said that and well, I wouldn’t tell you what the response was.
Caller: The people need to know the response. We need to know the response. If we are saying, if the majority of Montserratians are going to say that we do not need an airport in Geralds, we do not want it (not need it). We need an airport but we do not want it in Geralds and you’re going to tell me that you do not want to say what the response is?
Tell us what the response is. So that when the people start pointing fingers and laying blame, they will say, well listen, Dr. Lewis had already told us this is what our benefactors said to us if we do not accept an airport in Geralds.
LL: Well, the response is simply that we’re not prepared to give you the money to do that one, to do what you want.
Caller: When you say, what we want …
LL: To put a strip in an alternative location which will cost a lot more money.
Caller: But Doc, this thing about temporary solution, I am not calling it temporary solution; that’s a permanent solution. But if we were to say temporary solution, what is to prevent us (let us don’t even look at Old Quaw now because somehow along the way, it seems as if you have erased Old Quaw from the picture, basically)—Let us look at Thatch Valley.
Suppose we were to go at Thatch Valley, clear an area for a strip. Some pilots have said to us already, all you need to do is to put down enough yards of concrete tarmac to take the weight of a Dash-8 when it lands.
Suppose we were to do that, put in the rest in grass until we can go further, couldn’t we not also call that a temporary solution?
LL: Well, as you know we have looked at all proposals. I have been actually responsible for spearheading what I considered to be an option, which would have given us a temporary strip of some sort by the end of this year. But, you see decisions have to be made with technical advice and as I said, when you are spending somebody else’s money, you have to be guided by professional advice and also, as I said, make decisions, which will, if you feel will allow you to achieve your ultimate goal.
And as I said, right now, the decision to accept Gerald has allowed to access or at least know that we are going to get a fixed landing facility within the next 2 years and build an economy which will allow us enough economic activity to allow us to afford a longer strip later on.
Caller: Dr. Lewis, when you put your temporary solution (let me call it what you call it) in Geralds, what will happen to the ferry and the helicopter? Will they still provide a service to Montserrat?
LL: No. When the temporary solution is in Geralds, it will be much cheaper to provide air access or air services because as you know, fixed-wing aircraft are much cheaper to operate than helicopters. We will have, hopefully, we will be able to find some way of maintaining our ferry operations in a self-sustaining way.
Caller: You said, hopefully, Doc.
LL: That’s the only way to live.
Caller: But Doc these people that came here to do the transport study the other day, what they have basically said or what they have said is that whoever gave them their terms of reference told them, the day the fixed-wing facility at Geralds, the temporary-permanent solution at Geralds becomes reality, the helicopter is only for volcano observations and the ferry is totally out completely.
If the ferry is taken out, the Montserrat traveling public would be put at a serious disadvantage because Doc with all your nice glowing words, there are some of us who do not see any plane larger than a 9-seater landing on your temporary-permanent solution at Geralds.
And it means that the traveling public to Montserrat will be marginalized seriously in terms of baggage space, even in terms of human space because let’s take for example, someone puts on a charter, let’s say from New York City with let’s use a simple figure, 40 persons.
They come into Antigua from Puerto Rico. Your little 9-seater aircraft would have to make close to 10 trips to get those 40 persons over here, whereas, if you had a longer airstrip, the Dash-8, in one trip could have brought those people over.
LL: Caller, I think the argument you are making is a familiar one. I myself have made these very same arguments in many areas, even in London and I think that if you were in my shoes, you would probably come to the same decision because what you would do, just like I have, I will not lose sight of my goal. And I will use whatever decision I have to make as a stepping-stone to my ultimate goal.
HS: Caller, one last question. Caller: Yes, but just a comment for Doc. Doc I think you should have stuck with your guns then and said point blank, the people of Montserrat do not want an airport in Geralds and therefore the people of Montserrat are not prepared to accept anything else for now. Let us continue as we are until we can do better. Thank you.
LL: The problem is that the last point was the critical factor. We cannot continue as we are because in two years time we do not have enough money for subsidies of helicopter or ferry.
HS: Good night. You’re on the program. Caller: Good evening, Doc, we’re listening to you. A couple of things. Let me first say that I want you as much as possible in your capacity, to please try and protect the gentlemen who work at the heliport, at the control tower, if it’s possible to get them on a program like you’re having tonight to talk to the Montserrat public and to answer questions.
Norman Cassell is the Manager for the heliport; he is a pilot. Steve Ryan, Raymond Cabey, Hodge Daley and there are several others, Ponteen, many capable fellows.
Is it possible for you to allow these fellows to come on a program to talk to this topic? Is it possible for you to have them on a program where they will tell the absolute truth and you will protect their jobs the next day for telling the truth?
Doc, you’re on a program and I know you are a surgeon but I know you aren’t a technical pilot or an engineer. Is it possible for you to get these guys who are more technical and should at least be giving you some cues as to what is entailed in all of this? Is it possible for you to please try and get these gentlemen on the radio?
LL: You don’t have to plead because the government of Montserrat deals with the people’s business. And I believe in open government. And public relations is very important and I see no reason why anybody able to provide technical information to the public can’t give it.
And having said all that, it’s just a question of scheduling it. If a group came on the air they are quite welcome to bring along with them any other technical persons to discuss it.
Caller: So your moderator, Mr. Sergeant, is it possible for you to set up a program where the technical fellows who have been seeing into our flying into and out of Montserrat for the last 20 years to come on the program? We need to hear their voice.
LL: Yeah. I think that it is important for information to be shared with the public and as I said that is why we have insisted that there will be prerequisite tests, prerequisite wind studies, meteorological studies, flight performance tests and noise assessment tests which will guide any decision to proceed.
Caller: Doc, you have said all of this for the night. What I need is a commitment in the presence of Sergeant and the entire listening audience tonight because you are a fair person and you believe in transparency. Can you get these gentlemen on a program next week to talk to the public about Geralds.
LL: When you say, talk to the public, you mean a phone-in or a ? discussion? Caller: Whatever it is, whatever it is.
LL: Well, I have no problem. Caller: You have a problem with a phone-in?
LL: No. We are not afraid of the truth. We are responsible people and we will not be making decision on behalf of the people … Caller: So you will protect them?
LL: But they do not need protection; this is a fair society Caller: Okay, great. So, Sergeant, you’re there, you have the opportunity to bring in the technical fellows down at heliport, bring them in to answer questions because I know they are more versed than all of us concerning these matters.
LL: You see, I can tell you even more. The whole issue of discussing… People down at the heliport they know their stuff. We can actually go even further and whenever we have visiting experts, visiting people involved with the airport, we can bring them in for discussions. I think the important thing is sharing information and making decisions which are in the interest of the people…
Caller: Of course, Doc but what I am saying Doc, isn’t it possible for you to bring even one person from your department of government to support you discussions on the radio?
LL: Oh, I can do that at anytime.
Caller: Well, we want to see that happen. Thank you.
HS: Thank you very much and I think Doc, maybe we can perhaps next time bring along a technical person?
LL: As I said, I believe in freedom of information and honesty and you cannot hide behind things.
HS: Good night. Caller: Good night. Doc, Honorable Acting Chief Minister, I had to call again especially when you spoke about the need for public relations. One of the key pitfalls of public relations is defending a decision already made for you. Would you not agree that the take it or leave it situation presented in front of you was already a decision made?
LL: Well, as I have said again and again, we attempted to change the decision and failed and we have now had to make a decision, at least to guarantee that we can move forward with our ultimate goal which was to at least get some wind studies and so on started at potential permanent sites.
Caller: I would like to advise, therefore, that it’s very difficult to support a decision already made for you and there will be many pitfalls ahead, if it is not your decision. And also regarding the…
LL: No, no, no. That’s not true. We have set the criteria by which the facility will be built, I think and we are following international guidelines and regulations so the decision is based on sound technical advice, or will be based on sound technical advice and resources available, which is a very key factor.
Caller: Also, regarding the previous caller who commented on possibly some civil servants coming on the air, I would suspect that he knows that they can possibly only just explain government’s policy whatsoever decision is taken by the government of Montserrat, they can only explain …
LL: No, they won’t be expected to talk about policy. If they are technical people, they’ll talk about technical facts which you can always check in a book. Caller: Okay doctor.
HS: Thank you very much caller. Okay it has been rather long, interesting discussion. It lasted much longer than we planned but… LL: And I didn’t get to mention a few other things that
… HS: Yes, but before you do that, let’s take this other call Caller: What I want to know is suppose you come ask me for something and I can’t afford to give it to you and you turn it down and give me something that’s going to kill me, stop in my throat forever and strangle me, if I am not entitled to refuse it? You hear what I’m saying? You’re a doctor.
LL: I heard what you’re saying
Caller: If a bone stick in your throat, you ? it, you ? it or whatever and you can’t swallow it.
LL: But that’s because you’ve come to the opinion that it will be dangerous for you. Caller: Don’t’ you suppose to refuse it?
LL: Yes, and I would certainly refuse something that I consider to be bad, but you see, you have to first make the decision that you consider it to be bad. Caller: Yes, doc and you know it. Refuse it. Let us do without anything that is going to get us killed because some of us grandmother, grandchildren going to get killed on that.
LL: But you know I would never accept anything that had the slightest chance of causing that outcome.
Caller: It will cause it. Doctor, it will cause it; I know, you know it, before and right now. And regardless of what, money is not everything. It is better we use that ferry or probably stay on the ground because I believe it’s dangerous.
Coming over Lookout, them houses you built out there, one little transport comes down, they’re burned to pieces. You know and I know, so despite the wind turbulence, ?? flying over them houses. I know and you know. If you are going to kill somebody, you are a doctor, if something is going to stick in my throat, I’ll ???. Good night. Let us do without it. God bless you. Turn it down.
HS: Thank you very much caller. LL: As I was saying Herman, I think that it is good for people to get things off their chest and express their views because it drives home the point that we have heard the concerns, have taken all the necessary precautions and proceeded only because we have been convinced ourselves that we wouldn’t put ourselves or anybody of our own at risk.
HS: Good night. Caller: Good night, Herman. How are you doing? HS: Not bad at all. Caller: Good program HS: Thank you very much. Caller: I just want to ask Doc, whether our government have a choice where we put an airport or not. I mean I am listening to the program. I just came around but I am listening. Every now and then I am hearing something but the fact is that we don’t have the money.
The government of Montserrat don’t have the money. So, to me, it’s like, it doesn’t matter how much program you have, call-in program. It doesn’t matter how much you meet with people and talk.
I don’t think it would change the opinion of what the British government wants to do. They are the ones spending the money. And if they are not going to go into Old Quaw or Thatch Valley, it means that if they decide that they are going to put the airport in Geralds, it’s either that we take it or leave it.
I personally, I personally, don’t think that an airport in Geralds make a lot of sense to me.
I think it’s like when we used to have these Cessnas flying in Old Towne. We’re going back to that kind of life again.
I mean you have to see somewhere where you can have expansion. I mean if you are going to go to a temporary area, there must be some sort of expansion that you can deal with further on.
But if you go to Geralds there is no expansion that you can deal with there. And to come out here with a Twin Otter, you have to know that there are times in Christmas where the traffic gets very, very heavy. What are we going to do?
I mean you have to talk about investors coming in to invest. You need to have charter service where you can bring in, you know, take out things out of Montserrat and bring in things into Montserrat. So, I mean, maybe in the long run, we might have to go back to Bramble’s Airport cause as far as I am concerned you have to go move people from Drummonds and I don’t know if you have made any arrangement with them. Are they settled in moving? Did you talk to them, finding land to put them? Let me just listen to Doc, here.
HS: Okay, thank you very much caller. LL: Yes, as you said, the program involves relocating a small number of people and also compensating them adequately for properties. I’m sure if you, like me, had convinced yourself that it was possible for the Montserrat community to live with a short-term, temporary solution at Geralds until an airstrip was completed at Old Quaw or wherever, in 2008 and that we would continue to grow in population, economy and so on, that you would actually make the same decision that we have.
HS: Good night. Caller: Good night. Just one last point that I want to make. The caller before basically echoed some of the sentiments that I wished to express. But I would like to ask the Doc one question with regards to the airport.
The decision in accepting Geralds as an airport because based on all the Doc is saying, basically, I am seeing here that the decision to have Geralds as an airport was already made for us by someone else.
And I would like Doc to tell the people who really made the decision to accept Geralds as a temporary-permanent solution for an airport. Is it really you, Doc and your government or was it foisted on us by someone else?
HS: Thank you very much caller. You may wish to answer that, also if you could answer the question about W.H. Bramble. Is it still an option?
LL: No. As you know, the scientists are of a consensus that the volcano is likely to continue bubbling for 20, 30 years. Nobody knows for certain. But once it’s that kind of volcano, you know that it’s unlikely for us ever to be able to go back to Bramble’s.
Now, the other question about who made the decision. Decisions are made by governments and supporting governments. Our decision has actually come from the highest level. There is a paper, a document coming from the highest level in Britain, which simply says, the Government of Montserrat, satisfactory air services for the Montserrat for the time being can be provided by a temporary solution at Geralds. So the decision has been made, probably literally at a cabinet level in Britain.
HS: Thank you. That I’m sure answers your question. Good night. Caller: Good night. I believe that that decision was made by Mr. Brandt’s government. That is what I personally believe. And it doesn’t make sense nobody hide nothing, you know, because …
HS: On what do you base that? Caller: Sudden a go happen in Montserrat, sudden a go happen in this country ya, you understand, because me no fu down a Geralds. And anytime anybody fu me go up in a one plane and e crash somebody a go have to talk. You understand.
HS: Dr. Lewis just said that the decision was made in cabinet in England. LL: No, no. I said, probably at cabinet level.
Caller: At cabinet level, but wha me a try fu say now, nobody no turn nobody no fool. That decision done mek since in a Brandt government and now the PLM government a go bear the persecutement for everything. You understand? One other thing again, Doc,
LL: I want to reassure you, we will make sure that the same standards required for any other airport will be imposed.
Caller: Doc, let me ask you one question. It can’t be done at Thatch Valley and then a we start small and then maybe the next five, ten years a we go big, cause in a dem most Caribbean countries, dem airport yah, for instance, V.C. Bird me small and e expand, e expand.
LL: Well, actually this is what we’re going to be doing. As I said, since our objective is ultimately to have a long-term, permanent solution and we probably will have to do it ourselves, we are going to start small and gradually grow big but in the mean time, we will have a facility in Geralds that allows us to be able to afford to finish the one down at Old Quaw
Caller: Doc, you keep a talk about Geralds and me a tell you the fact and the truth Doc, me no fu down at Geralds. One other thing again, I hope when them guys wey a work down at the heliport come pon the air and talk, I hope they have one job, you know, Doc.
LL: Oh, they will have a job. I think that it is important for people to share information.
Caller: Doc a under your portfolio they fall under and I hope Doc you a go stand up wid them, you know, Doc. Me a warn you Doc. Doc, be careful, eh. Be careful. Thank you.
HS: Thank you very much caller. Quite an interesting call there Dr. Lewis. Listeners, we know we would like to wrap up this discussion but there are so many calls coming in, I’m sure Doc wouldn’t mind taking a few calls.
LL: Well I don’t mind. As I said the whole issue is public information to allow people to express their concerns and to give us the government a chance to allay their fears and reassure them, that we, like them have the same concerns but are making sure that we get the best deal in the long term.
HS: Good night. Caller: Yes. Good evening. Well personally, I really don’t see any sense in having an airport at Geralds with no expandability and you’re still planning to expand some sort of airport further down the line. I think that the one you are going to expand further down the line (wherever it is) that is the one you should start on because basically if you could only provide a Twin Otter, at half the payload, that’s basically a helicopter. And we already have that. So if you’re thinking about expandability, why … (tape runs out – discussion continued for approximately 10 more minutes)

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