On the weekly radio programme Just the Facts, on Monday 27th February, 2023, the Leader of the Opposition and host of the show, Mrs. Cora Richardson-Hodge, decried the fact that Government had never invited any member of the Opposition to sit in a meeting to discuss Anguilla’s participation in the Blue Belt Programme.
In the last House of Assembly meeting on Tuesday 21st February, 2023, Opposition member Mr. Kyle Hodge, posed a series of questions on the Blue Belt Initiative to the Honorable Minister of Sustainability, Innovation & the Environment, Mrs. Quincia Gumbs-Marie. ·
Mrs. Richardson-Hodge said the fact that Kyle Hodge, as a member of the Opposition in the Anguilla House of Assembly, was asking these questions indicated that, not only him, but none of the members of the Opposition was aware of the details pertaining to the Blue Belt Initiative.
“None of us,” she said, “was invited to any of the Blue Belt sessions of discussions, neither were we invited to be part of the consultation meetings. The only occasion to which we were invited was the grand launching ceremony [at Davida’s on Saturday morning, 4th February]. Other than that, there had been no sit-down discussion with the Opposition. So, one can imagine the surprise when we saw on the agenda ‘A Bipartisan Resolution’ with regard to Members of the Opposition on various aspects of the environment.”
She expressed her dismay over how unfair it was for the Minister of Sustainability, Innovation & the Environment to expect the Opposition to agree on issues that they were not initially privy to – matters that the Opposition was not cognizant of.
“That is why,” she said, “Kyle Hodge would have posed a number of questions to the Minister of Sustainability, Innovation & the Environment.”
She noted that the first question he asked was whether Anguilla signed on to the Blue Belt Programme. She implied that if Mr. Hodge knew for certain that Anguilla had signed on, there would have been no need for him to ask that question.
According to Mrs. Richardson-Hodge: “The Minister responded that Anguilla has agreed to join the Blue Belt, yes, but evidently there is no document that has been signed. Therefore, Mr. Hodge’s next question was whether there was a signed MOU that had been entered into by Government and what were the terms and conditions, because the Opposition simply was not aware of anything.”
“We were expected to come to the House to agree to a bipartisan resolution,” she said; “and we did not even know whether there was a document signed by the Government…Imagine how surprised we were to find out that no document has been signed. It causes us to wonder what all the hoopla was about.”
The Blue Belt Programme aims to assist the UK Overseas Territories in protecting and enhancing ocean health, to halt biodiversity loss, enable sustainable growth, ensure climate change resilience and to connect people with the natural environment.
