MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands’ consultation on new deep port receives many suggestions and strong support

New deep port proyect

The Falkland Islands government has released the findings of the public consultation document ‘Your Future – Your Say’ which show a very strong support for phased development of the new port, “to serve all its potential users,” according to an Executive Council paper.

Views were split, however, regarding the location of the port and the infrastructure accommodation for temporary workers: 44% of respondents preferring them to be located near to the port and 44% preferring a location near to, or on the edge of Stanley.

At the end of May and in early June of this year, the Falklands public were consulted on 10 key decision areas and asked for further comment. The questionnaire received 164 replies.

With regard to the layout of the port 76% preferred the option of building out into the sea rather than it being causeway based.

Almost two thirds of respondents supported access ‘Route 1’, the route east from Moody Brook to a low point along Wireless Ridge, however there were a number of suggestions put forward regarding the pathway for the access route.

The findings show less clear expressions of choice for the future of the Gordon Lines area, for development on the south side of the Camber, and for the location of temporary workers’ accommodation.

MLA Dick Sawle said: “I am very pleased with the engagement of the community. We received 164 responses in total, which is a substantial response rate. There was no surprise about the extent of different opinions we received however there are some very clear messages from the analysis, which will be taken forward.

“Policy principles will be drafted to refine the intentions for each of the early decision areas and further work is essential to develop the early key decisions within the wider infrastructure development planning context”.

The first stage consultation exercise provided brief background details on the new deep water port to be located at Port William and asked respondents to express their views on the early key decision areas, as identified in the ‘Towards an Infrastructure Development Plan’ http://www.falklands.gov.fk/assets/47-13P.pdf produced by David Smethurst Consultancy.

The consultation process involved the distribution of consultation documents in all local amenities, a drop-in session at the Town Hall on Monday 3rd June and a FIRS phone-in on 5th June. An online blog was also created where the consultation document could be downloaded and various assemblies were carried out at the Falkland Islands Community School (FICS) and at the Infant Junior School (IJS).

The results of the consultation, all comments and the responses received from the IJS questionnaire can be viewed on the blog at: http://figinfrastructuredevelopment.blogspot.co.uk/