For years the islanders of St Helena have dreamt of ending their isolation on what must rank as one of the most remote places in the world.

Just when they hoped that construction of an airport would drag the tiny British colony into the modern world, however, the project was put on hold by the Government.

“The middle of nowhere” is a phrase that could have been invented for St Helena. More than 1,200 miles from the African continent and twice as far again from South America, it was the inspired choice for Napoleon Bonaparte's last place of exile, an outcrop remote enough to thwart the most colossal of imperial ambitions.

For the past seven years, however, the 4,000 inhabitants have put their faith in the construction of a £100 million airport and, with it, the means to the economic self-sufficiency that has eluded them for close to 200 years.

Times Archive, 1853: Napoleon at St. Helena

The five or six years passed by Napoleon Bonaparte on the rock of St Helena constitute a discreditable and humiliating chapter in the history of Europe

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That dream was ended by a surprise decision from Whitehall last week. In a statement slipped out quietly to an otherwise distracted Parliament, the Department for International Development said that the Treasury could not fund the project.

“As a result, there will be a pause in negotiations over the St Helena airport contract,” Douglas Alexander, the Secretary of State for International Development, wrote. The longed-for airport had fallen victim to the credit crunch.

With a per-capita income of only £4,500, St Helena depends on the British taxpayer for £17 million a year for its survival. The one-off investment in the airport could have reversed all that, the islanders insist.

On the wild, windy and beautiful shores of St Helena a revolution is brewing. Whether this is a hiccough or a permanent end to the project nobody knows. The councillors of the island wrote to Mr Alexander of their “bitter disappointment from the repeated raising of expectation that have subsequently been dashed”.

They added: “Our electorate of Saints is renowned for loyalty to Britain, but if this current statement is hiding an indefinite delay in an airport, then we are certain there will be a very negative backlash.”

But how? Marching on Downing Street is barely an option. The journey to London takes two weeks by ship, or one to Cape Town from where they could fly. The lifeline of the island is the ageing RMS St Helena, the last working Royal Mail ship, which sails twice yearly from Portland.

Storms can cut the island off and when the ship does reach it, motor launches are needed to bring people and supplies to shore. The few cruise ships that visit bring little economic benefit to the island. They cannot moor there so passengers spend little time on shore.

The airport was meant to change all that. The project, which was scheduled for 2012, galvanised islanders to plan for a future with tourism as their main income. Industry experts trained hospitality personnel; tenders were taken to build upmarket boutique accommodation. Plans were hatched to lure back hundreds of young islanders who had left St Helena in search of opportunity.

“All our plans for the future were based on the airport project,” Eric Benjamin, one of the councillors, told The Times by telephone. “We are devastated.”

Before the island came under Crown control in 1834, as many as 100 ships a week called at it. The island was a crucial supply point on the route around Africa to India. The building of the Suez Canal heralded a decline that has continued until today.

London insisted that the project is merely on hold. The Saints wonder for how long, and whether approval will come too late to reverse its terminal, but graceful decline.

Opposition to the airport does exist - among those who fear for the unique, otherworldly character of the island. They are few however, the councillors suggest.

“I was at the Nativity at the school last night and I looked at all the children and thought, what future do we have to offer you here?” Mr Benjamin said. “This is the worst Christmas present we could have dreamt of.”

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