MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Stanley draws up plans for stranded cruise passengers.

A CONTINGECY plan is being written up for Stanley so that the town will be better prepared if it ever again finds itself overnight host to hundreds of stranded cruise ship passengers.

On February 2nd almost a thousand visitors ? equivalent to half Stanley's population ? were stranded for a night after high winds prevented them from taking tenders back to their cruise ship, Amsterdam.

Stanley residents, officials and businesses rallied round and their hospitality will have become the talking point of the holiday for many. Despite the overwhelming number of guests and the lack of notice, everyone was fed and given somewhere to lay their head ? with more than half being welcomed into private homes.

The night was not, however, without its problems. Many passengers, few of them in the first flush of youth, slept on mattresses on the floor of the Falkland Islands Defence Force drill hall, while some residents who had offered spare beds sat up until the small hours of the morning waiting for guests who never arrived.

Hospital staffs were inundated with those who had not thought to bring extra supplies of vital medication ashore ? and some who didn't actually know what drugs they should be taking, or in what quantities.

Meanwhile, in the offices of the agents, the Falkland Islands Company, Deputy Governor Harriet Hall was manning the phones while several of the ship's own crew seemed to have just shrugged their shoulders and gone to the pub.

At a public meeting in Stanley's Town Hall on Tuesday night, councillors discussed the measures now being put in place to make sure any future stopovers would run more smoothly.

Councillor John Birmingham, who sits on the Falkland Islands Tourist Board, said a meeting had been held last Monday to review the night and plan for the future. The fundamental problem, he noted, was that nobody was really sure who was in charge - the vessel, the agents, or the Government: "It moved away from being an agency problem and became a national problem," he added.

Councillor Mike Summers said that it must be made clear in future that either the cruise company or the agent takes responsibility for passengers leaving the ship: "Clearly the vessel must have an arrangement so that one or the other of them is responsible for their people ashore. When the Government becomes involved it can only really be at the behest of one of those involved. When there's not an emergency the Government can't step in and say ?We're declaring an emergency'".

Although the military have an annual training exercise to cope with the eventuality of a ship becoming wrecked off the Falklands coast, it does not cover less serious situations such as strandings.

Councillors and members of the public at Tuesday's meeting agreed that many cruise ships were giving their passengers woefully inadequate information about what to expect when they step ashore: even simple suggestions such as wearing suitable clothing could be hard to get across, let alone the need to bring spare medication.

Cllr Summers said: "It's not easy to get these cruise vessels to do what we think they should do for any number of things, they won't and they don't however many times you ask them. Week after week after week people turn up to go on walking tours with a pair of town shoes and a shirt on. Someone arrived to go on a Sea Lion Island [cross-country walking] tour the other day who had lung surgery the week before - and that's clearly the responsibility of the vessels."

Members of the public also asked who had made the decision to bring Amsterdam passengers ashore despite predicted high winds. Councillors agreed that the ship's captain was always responsible for such decisions.

Councillor Richard Cockwell added: "A few years ago we were complaining that as soon as the wind looked like it was going to blow more than three knots we didn't see them. Now it's gone the other way."

Lists will soon be drawn up of homes which can offer emergency accommodation, but other problems could take longer to overcome ?such as the difficulties of bus drivers who tried to drop off passengers at their promised accommodation but couldn't find the houses they were searching for.

As Councillor Birmingham observed: "One of the simple things that came up was numbering of houses. We have gone past the time that you could say ?Drop this person off at Mrs Goggins's house'. Stanley now requires a proper numbering system on the roads."

Councillors also noted that none of the local cruise ship agents attended last Monday's meeting, although they had been invited.

Sue Gyrford (MP) Stanley.