The public is reminded that a Bye-election will take place on Wednesday 4 March 2015 when St Helena will go to the Polls to elect a new Member to fill the vacant seat on Legislative Council.

Candidates for the 2015 Bye-election are: Anthony Arthur Green of St Paul’s, Geoffrey Patrick George Knipe of Sandy Bay, Pamela Ward-Pearce of Longwood and Lionel George Williams of St Paul’s.

Polling stations will be at the Blue Hill Community Centre, Half Tree Hollow Clinic, Harford Community Centre, St Mary’s Church at the Briars, Kingshurst Community Centre, Levelwood Community Centre, Jamestown Community Centre, and Sandy Bay Community Centre.

Constituents in the Alarm Forest electoral district should note the change in venue for the Polling Station i.e. St Mary’s Church.

Only those named on the Register of Electors dated 4 February 2015 will be able to vote in the Bye-election and you must vote in the Polling District in which you are registered.

If on Polling Day you cannot make it to the Polling Station, you may vote by Proxy – providing you obtain advance permission from the Returning Officer, Gillian Francis, at the Castle.  To get permission you must complete the relevant form (available on the SHG website http://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/publications/) which must be handed to the Returning Officer by no later than 10am on Monday 2 March 2015 (any forms received after this time will not be valid).

If you are voting by Proxy on Polling Day, your Proxy must be on the current Register of Electors and in the same Polling District in which you are registered.

For Proxy forms or to inspect the current Register of Electors you may contact the Returning Officer, Assistant Returning Officers or Assistant Registration Officers.The names of these Officers were printed in newspapers dated 19 and 20 February 2015. Copies of the Register are also available at the Customer Service Centre, Public Library and on the SHG website.

Further information on Polling Day was published as an insert in last week’s newspapers.

SHG

24 February 2015

The Education Directorate notes that there has been an increase in the number of absentees in Island Schools, in recent weeks, as a result of the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), currently present on St Helena.

The virus spreads easily, and to limit further spread, the Education Directorate encourages parents of children experiencing any symptoms of RSV, to keep them at home until they are comfortable they have recovered.

Island Schools will be considerate to the situation and acknowledge that children will not be able to attend School if they are unwell – a parental note will be accepted in this situation.

SHG

23 February 2015

Councillors are holding a series of constituency meetings during February and early March 2015.

Topics for discussion are Health and Water, but members of the public are encouraged to attend the meetings in their districts to raise any issues they might have.

The schedule for the remaining meetings is displayed below. All meetings will begin at 7.30pm.

SHG

23 February 2015

In view of recent media speculation regarding criminal investigations into former employees of the St Helena Government it is appropriate that I confirm that those investigations have now concluded.

The investigation was instigated by St Helena Police following a family case heard in the Supreme Court where the Chief Justice concluded:

“So troubled am I by what has occurred that I shall direct that a copy of this judgment and addendum be sent to HE The Governor. I shall recommend that experienced independent Counsel should urgently be engaged to review the papers in this case and to advise on whether the evidence is such as to disclose reasonable grounds for suspecting the commission by any member of the Applicant’s staff of any criminal offence pertinent to attempting to pervert the course of justice or perjury.”

HE The Governor followed the Chief Justice’s recommendation and appointed an independent Queen’s Counsel, experienced in family and international matters, to complete the review. It was as a direct result of that review that the St Helena Police Service was requested to undertake an investigation into allegations of criminal conduct.  The investigation was led by St Helena Police and supported by Merseyside Police in the UK.

The matters were rigorously and thoroughly investigated. The evidence from this investigation was reviewed by a second independent Counsel, appointed as Public Prosecutor of St Helena specifically to undertake this task. Counsel concluded that some of the actions of the suspected persons were ill-advised, unprofessional and showed poor judgment but that there was insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.  Counsel applied the test set out in the Code for Crown Prosecutors as would be applied by the UK Crown Prosecution Service.  There will therefore be no criminal charges preferred following this investigation.

The criminal aspects of the investigation are now concluded and relevant evidence in this matter will be shared with the professional regulatory bodies concerned.

Attorney General

20 February 2015

The St Helena Post Office would like to advise their customers that they have not received any official report from the Authorities in South Africa as to the reasons for the delays in receiving post from and via South Africa.

The Post Office would also like to inform customers that the Ascension Island Post Office does not have any authority to open or break any seals on post bags dispatched from the UK for St Helena.  However, there could be missent mail included in either the Ascension or St Helena post bags which is then sorted and forwarded on.

The following are approximate postal times:

 POST VIA SOUTH AFRICA

Surface mail to the UK, including other destinations takes approximately 13-15 weeks.

Airmail to the UK including other destinations takes approximately 4-5 weeks.

POST VIA ASCENSION ISLAND

Airmail to the UK including other destinations takes approximately 3 weeks.

 It should be noted that these times are from the date of departure of the RMS St Helena from St Helena Island.

 SHG

20 February 2015

Respiratory Syncytial Virus

Voting in the Bye-election 2015

The Elections Ordinance 2009 provides for Nominations to be delivered to the Returning Officer by no later than noon on the last day appointed for the Nomination of Candidates. The closing date for nominations for the 2015 Bye-election (to be held on Wednesday 4 March 2015) was today, Wednesday 18 February 2015.

Returning Officer, Gillian Francis, this afternoon announced the names of four Candidates who will be standing for the upcoming Bye-election and a seat on Legislative Council (photo attached).

The Candidates are as follows:

Anthony Arthur Green: of ‘Oltonia’, St Paul’s.

 Geoffrey Patrick George Knipe: of Perkin’s Gutt, Sandy Bay.

 Pamela Ward-Pearce: of ‘Panorama’, Longwood.

 Lionel George Williams: of ‘Brenville’, Nr Half Tree Hollow, St Paul’s.

The full Declaration, including the names of Sponsors, will be Gazetted as soon as possible and hard copies will be placed at the usual outlets and published on the SHG website.

Polling Day is set for Wednesday 4 March 2015. Polling Stations will be at the Blue Hill Community Centre, Half Tree Hollow Clinic, Harford Community Centre, St Mary’s Church at the Briars, Kingshurst Community Centre, Levelwood Community Centre, Jamestown Community Centre, and Sandy Bay Community Centre.

Further information about Polling Day, how and where to vote and voting by Proxy will be published as an insert in this week’s newspapers.

SHG

18 February 2015

As you will be aware, St Helena has attracted considerable negative publicity recently, depicting our Island as a place where child abuse is tolerated and not properly addressed by Government agencies. This is simply not true!

As Chairman of the Social and Community Development Committee I have seen first-hand the impressive improvements in Safeguarding arrangements over the past few years. Key agencies are now working well together to support survivors of abuse, rigorously investigating every report of abuse, and successfully prosecuting those who have committed such horrible offences.

I am also aware that the media reports have had a negative impact on many innocent people on the Island. We need to work across our community to support each other while bringing to justice people who have done wrong.

It is a fact that St Helena, like the rest of the world, has perpetrators of abuse. But, the Island is committed to robustly dealing with these issues head-on, and our staff on the front line have my full support and that of all my fellow Councillors.

Our proud community has been damaged by these allegations. The solution is for us to continue to work together, to support victims and be tough on perpetrators of abuse.

Far from being an Island that tolerates abuse we should be proud of the way in which we are dealing with new and historic allegations of abuse of any kind.  As a community we should welcome the opportunity that the Wass Inquiry brings to establish the facts. If you do have a concern, or any important information, then please come forward to the Inquiry team or to our local services. I can assure you that all information will be dealt with in the strictest of confidence.

We are investing in additional staff and training to underpin our commitment to safeguarding which is further evidenced by the development of a specialist Safeguarding Directorate. As an Elected Member I will continue to give my all in leading the Committee in relation to safeguarding and ensure that this issue stays at the top of our agenda. My mission, as your representative, is to support the victims of sexual abuse, to see that offenders are brought to justice and to repair the damage done to our community by unbalanced, distorted and sensational reporting.

To put this into perspective, my family returned to our beautiful Island in 2001 and one of our main reasons for doing so was that we considered it a better and safer environment to rear our child than that offered in South London. There are, at this moment in time, very few names on our sex offenders register and although we may see an increase in this statistic, I would consider these facts alone justify my earlier statement that press coverage, as you might expect in the commercial world, has been unbalanced, distorted and sensationalist.

Councillor Les Baldwin

Chairman of the Social and Community Development Committee

17 February 2015

The public is advised that due to organisational changes within the Port Control Section (Office of the Harbourmaster) St Helena, the following personnel can be contacted via their new email addresses, detailed below.

Assistant Harbourmaster, Steve Kirk, has been promoted to Deputy Harbourmaster and can be contacted via email address Deputy.Harbourmaster@hmrc.gov.sh

Assistant Harbourmaster, Brian Greentree, is now the Logistics Coordinator (Wharf-Side Operations) and his new email address is Logisticscoordinator@hmrc.gov.sh

Former email addresses for the above personnel are no longer valid and members of the public are asked to please use the new contact details as listed above.

The telephone number remains the same and all Port Control, Tax and Customs Officers can be contacted via the switchboard number 22287.

SHG

17 February 2015