On Tuesday 22, 2019 the government continued with the review of the the Planning and Development Bill 2018. All agree that modern and relevant town planning laws are necessary to effectively and efficiently develop land space and related activity.
The average Barbadian can list any number of examples to show a lack of ‘planning’ because the system has been compromised due to political interference and corrupt practices. The blogmaster recalls the change in land use for a property in St. James under an Owen Arthur administration which benefited in the millions David Shorey and a few others. Let it be said the draft Bill addresses many other aspects of town planning.
The focus of this submission is the more visible signs that there is a lack of town planning being executed in Barbados.
Example 1
Traffic flow between the Graeme Hall and Kendall Roundabout has been effected by commercial development with the establishment of Popular Supermarket and other businesses in the area. Massy Supermarket is to be established in the area soon. The result is that on our major highway traffic is restricted to a crawl during business hours. Anyone intending to catch a flight at GAIA must avoid using that stretch of the highway if they want to be ontime.
Example 2
Traffic flow through the ‘Bussa’ roundabout is severely affected during business hours because of activity at the Sky Mall and other commercial businesses established in the area.
Example 3
Clearly the Warrens roundabout was redesigned as an afterthought given the explosion of commercial activity in the area in recent years. We know Warrens is a large residential area.
There are several other examples we could have cited to prove the point that our planners do not know what they are doing and or they are not being allowed to do the job.
If it is the latter we are perplexed why the professional associations they are members would not have voiced a public concern.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.