31 May 2004

Opposition to former government house in Solomons being turned into hotel

11:27 am on 31 May 2004

Opposition is being mounted in Solomon Islands against a government plan to turn the former government house in Honiara into an hotel.

The building is currently being used as an art gallery and cultural village and is in the national administration centre of Honiara.

The Department of tourism and culture wants to sell the piece of land housing the art gallery to an Australian company.

But representatives from the nine provinces, who are meeting in Honiara, have opposed the department's plans.

They have formed a committee which is planning to visit parliament later this week to hand over a petition calling on the government to drop the proposal.

The government once sold the propery to a developer, but bought it back when the company failed to do anything with the building.