The Elected Member for Road South and Minister of Infrastructure, Mr. Haydn Hughes, has commended the attractive renovation of the House of Assembly Chambers, but has suggested that there should have been a separate parliamentary building as part of a reform process.
He made the suggestion in the Anguilla House of Assembly on Tuesday, August 11. He was at the time commenting on a Motion for the establishment and appointment of a Select Committee on Parliamentary Reform.
The Atlin Noraldo Harrigan Parliamentary Building was extensively damaged by Hurricane Irma in September 2017. Both the roof and chamber were restored under the Anguilla Programme financed by the UK Government for various public sector projects in the overall amount of sixty million pounds. It is only following the June 29 general elections, this year, that the Assembly Chambers began to be used again by parliamentarians. The House of Assembly adjoins the Magistrate’s Court (where the Assembly’s sittings were temporarily held formerly) and the High Court.
Mr. Hughes told the Assembly: “I support this Motion, and I do that even though we sit here in this beautifully-done parliamentary building,” he stated. “One of the principles of democracy…is the separation of the courts and parliament; and for reasons in Anguilla we have been able to merge our court building and our parliamentary building in the same facility. This is so much so that on occasion the court has had to use the parliamentary building for hearings and the like. That is something that is not in keeping with the principle of democracy, and the way that parliamentary proceedings should occur…
“I would have hoped, Madam Speaker, that, given the fact that this parliamentary building was destroyed on September 6, 2017, that in modernising our parliament, the building should not house both the court and the parliament. That should have been a great opportunity to separate the parliament from the court.”
He stressed that this anomaly should not exist in Anguilla whether the island is a colony, dependent territory or an overseas territory. He continued: “I hope that those who are tasked with good governance would live up to the principle of good governance, and grant some of those good governance funds in order to develop a parliament that is separate and apart from the court.”
Mr. Hughes also commented on the back offices of the House of Assembly occupied by the Clerk and other staff members. He said the area was hot and congested, and he called for the provision of new office facilities. He also referred to the old system of cassette tapes and recordings used for minutes of the House. He suggested that young people, with a fixation on social media, should be invited to see what should be regarded as museum relics.
In addition, he suggested that the proceedings of the House of Assembly should be televised live rather than having them recorded as at present.
The House of Assembly was adjourned until Friday, August 21, when a number of draft bills, and other matters, will be considered.
