There is to be an extension of the agreement with the owners of the Big Jim Building which is currently being used as a temporary Ferry Terminal at the Blowing Point Port.
The agreement runs out next month, according to Minister of Infrastructure and Tourism, Mr. Haydn Hughes, who held a meeting with stakeholders recently. Among other matters, the meeting, on July 31, was to consider the designs of the new Ferry Terminal and other port development work being funded by the UK Government under the 60 million pounds humanitarian grant.
The Minister told The Anguillian newspaper: “The work has not advanced as yet, and the agreement with the Romney’s family for the facility expires next month so we have to go into re-negotiations. Unfortunately, there are also some land issues that we have inherited at Blowing Point which the Government of Anguilla is trying to work through at present. There are some hiccups, but I don’t want to go into that too much in order not to compromise the case. What I wanted to do was to have a meeting with all the stakeholders to look over the designs for the project.”
Mr. Hughes explained that among those at the meeting were persons from the Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association, a representative of hotels and villas, the Anguilla Taxi Association and other stakeholders.
“We looked at the designs to see where we can tweet them to make sure that the building will be efficient and fit for purpose,” he continued. “We came out from that meeting with a general idea as to where we want to go. We believe that by the end of this month the designs should be ready; and within the next two months we will be going into procurement. Once the procurement is done we will begin construction. All things considered, I would say that the Blowing Point Ferry Terminal should be ready by 2022.”
Asked about the cost of the project, he replied: “Seven million US dollars. It was more but, apparently, what seemed to have happened is that a lot of the other projects were under-funded. So, over the last few months, they were taking more and more from the Blowing Point project. But I am here now as my remit is for the ports, and I am not going to allow any more money to be taken from the project. The education projects are under the Minister of Education and the port projects fall under the Minister of Infrastructure. I want to see the Blowing Point Port project done because it is very important for our tourism product as we move forward.”
Commenting on the type and quality of the project being envisioned for Blowing Point, Mr. Hughes stated: “It is going to be a facility that we can rely on for at least the next fifty years. My vision is that we should not have anything just for the short term. We should have that facility for fifty to sixty years. We have made some changes and adjustments to the designs to ensure that we have all the services there that our discriminating tourists can enjoy – both on embarkation and disembarkation.”
Mr. Hughes noted that a search and rescue facility will also be provided at the Blowing Point Port. “Over the years, we have been relying heavily on Avery Thomas who has been doing yeoman work when it comes to search and rescue – and our plans at Blowing Point are going to be good,” he said.
The Minister added: “As you know, Anguilla right now is under lockdown. Almost every day we are meeting to decide how we are going to incrementally open so that we can eliminate all risks to the Anguillian public, while having some semblance of an economy. Just today, (Friday, August 7), we met with all the hotel owners and operators so that together we can move the process forward.
