By and large there have been a number of complaints and concerns from the public as it relates to the development and upkeep of the town. There is a platform for these matters to be tabled that is offered by the Town Council itself. That platform is neighborhood meetings that the current council has been holding even before entering office. They are about to hold their 26th meeting on Thursday and Deputy Mayor Ian Cal says it is one of the first of twelve meetings they plan to hold in this year in each zone within the town.

Ian Cal – Deputy Mayor

“We are holding neighborhood meetings in different areas in town, one to hear from the residence and to get their feed back to their concerns, suggestions even complains and we as a council don’t have all the answers so we believe it is important to keep in contact with the public, that is something we campaigned on, something that we promised the residence that we will do and we have been doing it.”

According to Deputy Mayor Cal, concerns include overgrown abandoned lots which from the council’s count, amounts to about three hundred in total. These he says, not only pose health hazards but are a safety issue.

Ian Cal – Deputy Mayor

“The way we are addressing it is on a one to one basis, when you come and complain we try to address it to you but it is not something that we can do continuous, it is unsustainable for a council to be cleaning these lands that have owners, another issue that I have seen common and that we have been hearing from the public is the expansion areas in town for example the Albert area and down the Louisiana Area and over the Union Town area, those are the expansions areas in town and they have no light; these areas are dark, doesn’t have any lamp on the post, they have the electricity there but they don’t have any bulbs so this is an issue as well and people come to the council to complain about it and as a council we take that complain and we launch it to BEL.”

Cal adds that there is a process to be followed as it relates to the latter. For a lamp fixture installation, it has to be forwarded to BEL and the Ministry of Finance which accordingly pays a dollar to BEL for this. For replacements, the process is faster as BEL deals with the matter directly once the matter is forwarded to them.

Cal says in an effort to keep that constant contact with the public, members of the council have also made appearances on the media and is active on its facebook page and website. The next meeting will be held this Thursday at Antigua Street and the public in that area is asked to make an appearance to voice their suggestions, recommendations, concerns and even criticisms.

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