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Falkland Islands: Weekly Penguin News Update

The first step is to stabilize the country which is struggling with the basics according to farmer Ted Jones.

Headlines: Boost for Camp ranks on new RDS advisory group; TV blackout to continue

Boost for Camp ranks on new RDS advisory group

INFRASTRUCTURE in Camp is “struggling at best and failing at worst” and a change of focus is needed on “here and now”, a farmer has told the body charged with drawing up a Rural Development Strategy.

Ted Jones has recently been recruited to the RDS group, joining Justin Knight as a representative of the Rural Business Association (RBA).

Established in March 2008, the group is working to develop a strategy in line with the Islands Plan aim to “maintain Camp in order to encourage a well populated, economically and socially sustainable community integrated within the national economy”.

At their latest meeting, held last week, it was decided that they should look not only at the long term strategy but also issues facing Camp in the short and medium term, a move welcomed by Mr Jones.

He said it was important to focus on stabilising the Camp before looking at the long term future: “The Camp infrastructure is struggling at best and failing at worst. What we need here and now is to stabilise because at the moment we’re struggling with the basics – the all weather tracks are not standing up to what we need to use them for, and TV and radio supply are at an all time low.

“Of course we mustn’t lose sight of the good things and we now have broadband, even if it is limited. But we need to stabilise in the short term and then concentrate on the longer term.”

Leading up to Farmers Week, some Campers had become disillusioned with the RDS, Mr Jones said, and this was what motivated him to become involved: “I think in Camp, people saw the RDS as a bit of a wish list. But we do need to go through this process, we can’t do nothing.”

The RDS group is to consult further with the community and is considering making minutes of its meetings public.

Group member and Business Advisor at the Falkland Islands Development Corporation, Nuala McKay said it was felt there needed to be further communication on the progress of the strategy, as it was made. A consultation period has been planned for the end of September and regular updates will be made in the Penguin News, the Wool Press and the Tourist Board newsletter through the RBA.

Ms McKay said: “By September we would hope to have the body of an outline strategy; and will have developed ideas on what the public sector could do, for instance creating the right business environment to encourage confidence and growth.”

The group would also have to identify and secure sources of funding needed to deliver the strategy, she said.

The RDS is being progressed in parallel to the Economic Development Strategy. Although the Camp and Stanley economies had many similarities, Ms McKay said, there were some fundamental differences which could affect potential future growth, “including a highly dispersed rural population, low population density, a greater distance to markets and challenging transport links.”

Camp also had unique environmental and cultural assets offering substantial opportunities for sustainable growth, she said.

TV blackout to continue

CAMP residents will have to wait until at least next week until they know when their television and radio services may be resumed.

Power to the Mt Maria transmission site failed early last month when one of two transformers burned out – and late yesterday it was confirmed it was “beyond repair”.

No spare transformers of that type are available locally, and direct power supply from the generators at Port Howard cannot be resumed without a replacement being obtained from the UK, said a government spokesman. There is a standby generator on Mt Maria, but this is considered unsuitable for 24/7 operations, and it is not known whether the transmitter on Mt Maria is even capable of being put back in service after recent damage.

All of these issues are currently being worked through by SSVC and FIG, and a further site visit is planned for early next week when a detailed assessment will be undertaken. A government spokesman said the continuing outage was “very much regretted”.