St Helena’s airport is no white elephant
With the right business approach, this beautiful island has tremendous tourism potential
St Helena is famous as the place where Napoleon was incarcerated after the Battle of Waterloo. Chosen for its remoteness, the island was ringed by British warships fearful of their captive’s escape. It has served our country well ever since, including as a staging post for the Royal Navy in the South Atlantic for many years. Now the Saints, as the Brits who live there are known, have a real chance to transform their island.
Plans to build an airport on St Helena finally came to fruition under the Coalition. I agreed, as the Cabinet minister responsible for the Department for International Development (DFID), that this £286million project would proceed. The expert advice indicated that British taxpayers would save money as a result over the long term and that the island would enjoy new economic opportunities, particularly in tourism.
The airport was built on time and on budget – a remarkable feat of engineering. Last month I visited St Helena to see for myself the island’s potential. I am the first MP to do so in 10 years, taking three weeks to get there and back by ship, until now the only means of reaching it.
The popular belief in the UK is that St Helena’s airport is a white elephant – unusable by aircraft and lost in the vastness of the South Atlantic. This proves the adage that a lie is halfway around the world before the truth has put her boots on. In the last six months, 60 private jets have landed on the island without problem and 15 medical flights have been enabled with life-saving consequences. In the same time just two commercial flights have been delayed. A second weekly flight is likely to start shortly and private sector interests are determined that a third from Europe must begin soon for the island’s full potential to be realised.
St Helena is just about the remotest place on earth. A community of more than 4,000 British citizens live there amid ancient colonial architecture and breathtaking scenery presided over by a British governor ensconced in the splendour of Plantation House. Thanks to the airport, St Helena faces an exciting future and, as capacity increases, will become the go-to destination for intrepid travellers.
The newly converted Mantis hotel in Jamestown is a masterpiece. The French, fascinated by Napoleon’s life and death there, will flock to see the extraordinary heritage. The potential that the sea offers – fishing, diving, snorkelling and sailing – is enhanced further by the chance to swim among whale sharks, the gentlest giants of the ocean. I look forward to St Helena launching many other imaginative attractions, including the seven great St Helena Walks among its steep volcanic hills, green mountains and impossibly beautiful valleys.
The oldest living creature on earth, Jonathan the tortoise, lives at the governor’s residence. At 186 years old, he was born shortly after Napoleon’s death. Encouragingly for one of his great age, he is still enjoying regular sex, which he accomplishes with considerable noise, skill and at a commendably slow pace. When he dies, he will receive a state funeral, will then be stuffed and his shell will reside in the National History Museum in London.
Two immediate issues must be addressed for St Helena’s future to be secure. Firstly, the Saints must remove all barriers to private investment. But DFID itself must not stand by and allow its huge investment to fail through a reluctance to make further low level funding available. Taxpayers’ money must complete infrastructure and renewable energy projects, which are essential if the full benefit of the airport is to be secured. It is astonishing that the island has been without a capital programme from DFID for over a year at such a critical time. But the proposed spending of £6million of taxpayers’ money on a new prison is ridiculous: there are only 10 prisoners on St Helena.
Above all it is the tricky equation of increasing flights to the island balanced by the growth in tourism and hospitality capacity that is essential. The next governor should come from the private sector. An entrepreneur with a record of building businesses should follow the current Governor, Lisa Phillips, who has served the island so well. The next governor will live in one of the nicest government houses in the world. Possessing a private jet would be an advantage.