They are also to receive a further £10m from the EU for infrastructure improvement.With a population of about 3,800, St Helenians - or "Saints" - are among the most subsidised people in the world. The island has no political parties, no trade unions, and a recent crime wave consisted of the theft of one computer and a man caught relieving himself against a wall. But it is rich in flora and fauna and exceptionally important historic buildings.The new airport is to open in 2010, when the RMS St Helena will be retired. The climate is dry subtropical, ranging from 15°C to 32°C, with an annual mean rainfall of 152mm.Discovered by Portuguese sailors in 1502 and British-owned since the 17th century, it is still only reached by sea once a month from Cape Town by Britain's last Royal Mail ship, the RMS St Helena. Its coastal cliffs thrust 300 metres out of the sea and its narrow land mass is cut by a few steep-sided valleys. The island is the deeply eroded summit of a composite volcano, which lends St Helena its extraordinarily dramatic topography.Plugs, domes, and dykes from the volcanoes create striking formations with names such as Lot, Lot's Wife, and the Gates of Chaos.
It is 1,200 miles from Africa, 1,800 miles from South America and 700 miles from Ascension Island, the next nearest land. Pitted against them is an alliance of conservationists concerned the island's unique biodiversity will be sacrificed in pursuit of a development model heavy on golf courses and jet-liners but light on environmental planning.On one side is the Government's Department for International Development, determined to bring mass tourism to the tiny, beautiful but very broke South Atlantic island by building, at taxpayers' expense, an international airport, equivalent in size to Birmingham International, on one of St Helena's most environmentally sensitive areas.Pitted against Whitehall are conservationists, historians and many islanders, fearing St Helena's already precarious wealth of indigenous plants and wildlife, and its exceptionally rare and largely untouched historic buildings dating from Napoleon's time, will soon be lost in the Government's push for mass tourist cash.St Helena, a mountainous volcanic outcrop just 10 miles by six, has always been celebrated for its remoteness. Rising 800 metres out of the Atlantic Ocean, St Helena's rocky peak is the highest point of one of the remotest islands in the world, and is the only landfall for 700 miles in any direction. To the French emperor - who had hoped for exile in England after losing the Battle of Waterloo - it must have resembled a tombstone, as he contemplated the last port of call he would make in his life.Napoleon's imprisonment in 1815 and his death six years later gifted St Helena its place in history and cemented the island in the popular imagination as a byword for isolation.But the British Government has had a belated change of heart over its remotest prison colony and is seeking to turn the outpost of Empire into a modern-day paradise island, fit for five-star tourists. Diana's Peak, the verdant summit of a long dead volcano, was the first thing Napoleon would have seen of his new island home as he sailed towards it 190 years ago. Faced with the threat of a global pandemic, we find that effective international co-operation does not, and indeed cannot, depend upon all the participants making a prior commitment to merge their countries in "ever closer union".DR D R COOPERMAIDENHEAD, BERKSHIRESir: Will the Government take the opportunity presented by the threat of bird flu to announce an immediate ban on hen nights?KEVIN GILVARYTITCHFIELD, HAMPSHIRE.
Shepway Friends of the Earth, along with our national office, Kent Green Party and local Greenpeace activists have all supported this scheme almost from its inception. We are thus all very pleased that it has been given the go-ahead and look forward to seeing it up and running in 2007.RAY DUFFSHEPWAY FRIENDS OF THE EARTH FOLKESTONE, KENT Bird flu in Europe Sir: Typically, we are now being told that the European Union "comes into its own" over a problem like bird flu Exactly the opposite is true. I am sure that the citizens of Hampstead are extremely high-minded, but I doubt the assertion of Dr James Lovelock that "A lot of London is fairly high - Hampstead is 300 feet above ground".DR ALAN MOORELEDBURY, HEREFORDSHIRE Equal honours Sir: Just for the record, as it were, Jonathan Brown ("So what have the Welsh ever done for us", 17 October) could equally have cited along with the mathematician Sir William Jones (of the ¼ symbol) the Pembrokeshire-born Robert Recorde (c 1510-1558), who in his 1557 treatise on algebra, The Whetstone of Witte coined the mathematical symbol of equality (=) which remains in use to this day.TIMOTHY P REESBRECON Welcome windfarm Sir: Not all conservationists have expressed dismay at the approval of the windfarm on Romney Marsh, Kent, as you reported on 19 October. Already I have been informed that two novels with the same name have been published in England, and my agent in America cables to say that three have recently been placed on the market in the United States ... I can only express the modest hope that this story will be considered worthy of inclusion in the list of the Hundred Best Books Called Summer Lightning."SEBASTIAN ROBINSONGLASGOW High-thinking village Sir: The Independent is to be congratulated on the "Disappearing World" magazine (17 October). We believe the stigma from being prosecuted for manslaughter, coupled with fines such as those imposed on National Grid Transco, Network Rail and Balfour Beatty, will be an effective deterrent.LAWRENCE WATERMANPRESIDENT, INSTITUTION OF OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH, WIGSTON, LEICESTERSHIRE Novel titles for popular fiction Sir: Miles Kington's thoughts on writing books with second-hand titles (18 October) were anticipated by P G Wodehouse in 1929.He was delighted to have come up with Summer Lightning, but added, "My exuberance has been a little diminished since by the discovery that I am not the only one who thinks highly of it. But their professionalism, humour and commitment - when confronted by the very real difficulties they face in supporting the Iraqi people in building a new and better Iraq - shine through.I never cease to be amazed by the operational appetite of our soldiers - there is a real hunger to deploy on operations.GENERAL SIR MIKE JACKSONCHIEF OF THE GENERAL STAFF MINISTRY OF DEFENCE LONDON SW1 New law needed for rail safety Sir: The ruling out of criminal charges by the Crown Prosecution Services in relation to the Potters Bar rail crash highlights the inadequacy of existing legislation, and the urgent need for the new corporate manslaughter law, to provide a sense of justice for victims and their families.The new corporate manslaughter law would remove the need to prove a "directing mind" in large corporate bodies for avoidable deaths arising from work.
