Difficult decision

This week was a tough one and for the five of us who had been elected to Executive Council we were asked to consider approving development permission to relocate the island's prison to a site in Half Tree Hollow (HTH).  The HTH site is Sundale House which was formerly the island's psychiatric hospital.  HTH is now the largest residential area on the island.  This is not the forum to go into any detail about the reasons for the decision but Exco agreed by a vote of 3-2 to approve the relocation.

The prison in town is no longer suitable and it cannot be made so.  It was built in the 1820's and it is a high risk environment for both prisoners and prison officers.  Redeveloping an existing building is substantially cheaper and we have a very limited budget for capital development.

Understandably the local residents were very angry at the decision to move a prison into their neighbourhood. As we had said before the election that we would strive for openness and  transparency  so this part of the Exco meeting was held in public.  About a dozen people attended.  Once we had made the decision we then held a public meeting the next evening and around 20 people came.  Some were very vocal and expressed their anger at the decision.  I accept that they are angry and upset but as we explained we had to make a decision for the whole island and its future.  Everybody behaved with dignity and restraint and towards the end of the meeting I got the feeling that some, while not changing their minds, came to accept that the decision had been made and it was time to move on.  The prison service had agreed to our recommendation that a senior officer be appointed as a liaison officer, both during construction and once in operation, and I think that this helped.

Before the end of the meeting we were challenged by a member of the audience who said she hoped that in 15 - 20 years time we would not be regretting this decision.  I could only agree with her and try to reassure her that I genuinely believed that the right decision had been made and that in making the decision I was very aware that this decision had long term implications for St Helena.

As I say it was not an easy decision to make and the meeting was difficult but we owed it to the people of HTH to explain why the decision had been made.  I guess that there will be many more difficult decisions to make in the future