From today's Telegraph letters page;
£285.5 million of taxpayers' money was spent on building an airport in St Helena that is not usable by commercial airlines
SIR – You are quite right to draw attention to the profligate use of taxpayers’ money simply to meet the aid spending target of 0.7 per cent of GDP, set by the last government.
A good example is the construction of an airport on the South Atlantic island of St Helena – a British dependency. The experiences of the Second World War demonstrated that, while it would be physically possible to build such an airfield, it would be operationally dangerous to use. Even Charles Darwin commented on the dangerous updraughts at the point later chosen for the airstrip.
It was also clear that building an airport would lead neither to a significant increase of tourism nor to the possibility that St Helena could be self-sustaining financially.
David Smallman
Governor of St Helena, 1995-99
Blakesley, Northamptonshire