‘We desperately need equipment’-PWD Director Skelton
While testifying before the House of Assembly’s Standing Finance Committee (SFC) on the 2017 Budget, Director of the Public Works Department (PWD) Jeffrey M. Skelton told the elected Members that he desperately needed equipment.
Sister Islands ignored, no staff, no tools
This was also confirmed, especially for the sister islands, by Ninth District Representative Dr The Honourable Hubert O’Neal who told the SFC “there was a serious deficiency in equipment for the men to work with on Virgin Gorda.”
Further, the Director told the SFC that he had placed in the 2017 Budget requests for 4 backhoes; 1 for Anegada, Jost van Dyke, Virgin Gorda and Tortola.
Dr O’Neal spoke to the suffering of the PWD on the sister islands and stated that there was also “need for trucks, transport vehicles, picks and shovels, ordinary things that they use on a daily basis to fix roads.”
In addition, Hon O’Neal- the first term Ninth District Representative- asked if Virgin Gorda was at their full complement of staff. To this, Mr Skelton responded in the negative.
Prison labour?
The Junior Minister for Tourism and At Large Member Honourable Archibald C. Christian made an appeal to the PWD Director for his department personnel to “remove all equipment and debris from the roads after repairs are completed.”
Mr Skelton, while before the Committee, stated that he was in “discussions” with the Superintendent of Prisons who had “agreed to loan the PWD five prison inmates to work with him in the first instance on a three week trial.”
The PWD Director further said thereafter, he would be loaned an “additional five inmates, and if this happened the Department would be able to do a lot more with the resource.”
Concrete trucks making a mess
In another related matter, the Director stated that the concrete companies also contribute to the debris on the road.
He told the Committee, both companies have been overloading the concrete trucks and climbing steep hills. “Once they carry more than eight yards and start to climb the hill the concrete would spill.” Mr Skelton said he has written to both companies on the matter.
Hon Christian asked the Director if when he wrote the concrete companies he suggested imposing fines. To this, Mr Skelton stated there were fines relative to excavators travelling on the public roads; however, he did not think there was legislation that empowered him to enforce fines on the concrete companies.
To this, the former Leader of the Opposition Hon Julian Fraser RA (R3) stated in the SFC that legislation had been enacted a few years ago to implement the Road Warden Act. He noted that they might want to look at that and bring back the Road Warden Programme which would give Mr Skelton some control over these types of matters, according to Hon Fraser.
24 Responses to “‘We desperately need equipment’-PWD Director Skelton”
One even was taking to court upon release, for child support for the same monies owed to him. To this date these guys working for the last 2 to 3 years and no pat just labor. What message are we sending?
It needs to stop. They are trying to change and the system is not helping them.