Consultation period for recovery plan ‘way too short’- Dr Natalio D. Wheatley
The consultation period is from December 20, 2017 to January 20, 2018 and the public has been advised to submit contributions to the plan via email or hard copy, with no mention of direct meetings with the people.
This has drawn criticism from social commentator and President of the Virgin Islands Party (VIP) Dr Natalio D. Wheatley aka Sowande Uhuru, who appeared as a guest on the first airing of BVI Have Your Say on CBN 90.9 FM Radio on Wednesday January 3, 2018 with host Doug Wheatley.
Way too short
“I think we have started off on the wrong foot there. The consultation period is too short, way too short. We can’t say that we want to consult the public but we just paying lip service to the whole process of consultation.
“I know that we want to get up and running, we are action people, but action must be informed by thought, by ideas…effective, sound ideas.”
Government had said in the proposed recovery and development plan that roughly $721M will be needed to restore the territory over the next five years.
“$721M is a lot of money and we don’t want to get it wrong as we have gotten it wrong in the past,” Dr Wheatley said in lamenting the short window for the public to make its input to the recovery plans for the Virgin Islands following the destruction of floods and hurricanes in August and September 2017.
No meetings?
“The next this is they are asking persons to submit comments by email or by hard copy and just deliver it to the office. There has been no mention of meetings…I would be happy if they even consider meetings with stakeholders. You can’t just have government bureaucrats in a room speaking about the economy.”
Dr Wheatley added that the stakeholders to be consulted with should include persons who are involved in business and would be impacted in a number of ways… He said similarly, in education, there needs to be meetings with parents, teachers and even those retired.
“So we need some meetings and I am not sure exactly how we make that intervention but we have to make some demands of Government to have meetings with stakeholders in every sector, every sector of human activity as it relates to this recovery,” Dr Wheatley commented.
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14 Responses to “Consultation period for recovery plan ‘way too short’- Dr Natalio D. Wheatley”
One project that NEEDS PUBLIC INPUT is the offer by OBMI to rebuild the West End ferry dock. Everyone agrees it has to happen, but how. Let's not have a big developer put a big project in the middle of a small community focused on charters. OBMI renovated Little Dix and built Scrub Island. Can their architects design something appropriate for Sopers Hole without dredging 1/3 of the harbour or taking 20-30 moorings? The are volunteering staff but where is the rest of the money coming from? If emergency relief, then the people HAVE to have a seat at the table.
This project is too important and is the front door telling people they are in the BVI- not Red Hook, Miami, or Dubai.
The Premier "can't wait to see the plans". Will they be published for the public to comment on? The last effort was priced at at least $40 mil and was a huge complex with offices, restaurant, VIP lounge, conveyor belt, cafe, atrium of wasted space. Just make it efficient to do the job, attractive to fit with other architecture, and functional. There is no space for anything else. HOLD PUBLIC MEETINGS. THEY HAVE TO LIVE WITH THE TRAFFIC AND CONSTRUCTION.