With the money approved, the design drawings completed, and the land and sea area determined – construction work on the new cargo jetty at Road Bay is just about ready to commence. The site is to the south of the existing jetty which was originally built at the turn of the 1970s by Royal Engineers. Repair work on the jetty followed a few years ago to halt its deterioration and to safeguard its operations.
The new jetty requires the acquisition of an area of land, east of the beach, both to facilitate its construction and functioning. Speaking about the project, Minister of Infrastructure and Communications, Mr. Curtis Richardson, called to memory that after the repair work, the United Kingdom Government informed the Anguilla Government that it had some eight million US dollars available towards the building of a new jetty.
Mr. Richardson, speaking at the Government’s press conference on Tuesday, September 17, continued: “The Premier, Mr. Victor Banks, the Chairman of the Anguilla Air and Sea Port Authority and I spoke about it. We decided that building a jetty alone at Sandy Ground [Road Bay] could not adequately serve the people of Anguilla. We therefore undertook to get lands around the area.
“As you know, most of the land in Anguilla is owned by individuals and my style is to engage the people in the vicinity in order for them to be willing contributors to national development. Fortunately, we are now in an era in Anguilla where, for the first time, I am proud of Anguillians on a large scale because a lot of them have come to realise that, apart from their own personal endearment to their property, they want to support the big idea of national development.
“We have had a large measure of success in Blowing Point for the lands required for the new ferry terminal and other port development there. And now, thank God, we have also had a large level of success in Sandy Ground for the new Road Bay jetty. A good number of persons in the Sandy Ground port vicinity have agreed that, based on certain conditions, they will be willing to relocate. But we still have other people who, for good reasons, including sentimental attachment [not willing to relocate because] that is where they were born, raised and accustomed to living.
“I understand all of that so we are working on a few of those hurdles. However, with the help of God, and the support of Social Security, we were able to get a fairly large amount of land to build the new port facility in Sandy Ground. There are still a few owners of some parcels of land with whom the Port Authority is holding discussions to get them to fully support the idea of giving up their property and relocating.”
Minister Richardson estimated that, within the next nine months, his Ministry and the Port Authority, should receive a better response from all the remaining landowners once they realise that the project is to go ahead; the importance of national development; and that the expansion of the port would impact the quality of life and living in the area unlike never before.
He added: “The country must go forward and we want that to take place so that our citizens are as happy as we can make them.”
