NEWS OF THE COMING of long expected environmental legislation with a passion for embracing the fad for greening leads me to sound another warning to avoid the exhaustive labour in the “reinvention of the wheel” where provision has already been made for the orderly and progressive (some say “sustainable”) development in both urban and rural (including coastal) areas and the preservation of the amenities thereof as a comprehensive policy.
The environment is a product of the use of related space. If a toilet bowl is placed and used in a space allocated in a dwelling house as a living room, it will create a change in the environment from a sitting room to something else.
“If you plant potato you will reap potato!” The environment of Barbados is sustained by adherence to the Statutory Development Plan and Amendments.
The development plan is amended progressively to secure consistency and continuity in the framing and execution of a comprehensive policy for the use and future development of all land in the island.
Every amendment of the development plan requires a Development Order And Regulations prescribed by the Second Schedule of the Act Cap 240 to which Section 6 (3) of the act refers.
The matters include roads, buildings and other structures, community planning, amenities, public services, transport and communications and agreements for development and subdivision of land, and the alteration of the boundaries and areas of towns.
The most efficient legislation for the control of development which creates the environment is achieved by commissioning the framing of the Seven Development Orders and contingent regulations to be made under the existing Town & Country Planning Act Cap 240, which would make the proposed Environmental Law redundant statute.
LEONARD ST. HILL