Ariel Map of the Warrens area which captures the roundabout, Shell Gas Station, Chefette Restaurant and CGI Building
Yesterday morning we experienced a scary moment on the road. A member of the BU household was exiting the Shell gas station at Warrens and witnessed two cars narrowly avoid an accident. It appeared to us that one car intended to make the turn into CGI carpark and there was the other car waiting to exit from Chefette restaurant. There was also a car parked a few metres South of the entrance to the CGI entrance setting down a passenger. The car which was waiting to exit from Chefette driveway to turn left to go in the direction of KFC had to jam breaks because the driver did not see a car which was speeding from the direction of KFC Northbound. The road was wet but because that road is reasonable wide the motorist who was travelling Northbound was able to use this to her advantage.
We have questioned the efficiency of the Town Planning department in several of our blogs in our short existence. We have also questioned the previous government’s lack of a coherent Physical Development Plan for Barbados. The desecration on the West Coast of Barbados with most of the windows to the sea obliterated, and pedestrian access to many of the beaches gone is sufficient evidence of the lack of a national physical development plan. Over the years the exponential growth of the number of cars on the roads, reported to be 120, 000 plus has also exposed the lack of planning by the Town Planners and by extension government.
We have illustrated in the image above with the help of Google Earth the area just off the Warrens roundabout where some members of the BU household almost witnessed a serious accident. We are not engineers and we hope that we are wrong but given the design of the road system in this area, there will be many accidents at this location in the future. Here we have one of the busiest roundabouts in Barbados, with the Shell Gas Station, Chefette Restaurant and CGI building all clustered snugly within 100 metres off the exit of the Warrens Roundabout which will seriously affect traffic flows.
It prompted the BU matriarch to ask who is the jackass that approved the development in that area. The truth be told, the haphazard development at Warrens is consistent with what is occurring all over Barbados. We have already reported in previous blogs that the Town Planning Department is under-resourced and heavily politicized, a recipe for inefficiency if ever there was one.
Common sense clearly should have dictated that the enter and exit points of the three businesses were designed better. The gas station was located in the area first so the blame in the planning is connected with the subsequent coming of Cheffete and CGI buildings. Maybe the confusion can be explained when one considers that Chefette is owned by Haloute, CGI, Peter Harris et al and Shell is owned by SOL.
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