The Barbados Labour Party administration has shown that it has no proper development plan for the north of the island and the decline of Speightstown, St Peter, is evidence of this.
That is the view of Democratic Labour Party political leader Ralph Thorne, who told those attending a meeting in Speightstown on Tuesday night: “There is no proper development plan for the people in the north. We still have people in this country who believe that the St Joseph Hospital [in St Peter] ought to have been revived.”
He said the historic town’s progress “has ceased in many ways because of . . . political and developmental policy”.
“I always make the comparison between Speightstown and Oistins. Oistins continues to thrive as a town because people live there and that is what contributes to the character of township – the fact of residence by people in that town.
“Speightstown has declined as a town; it is not quite as residential as it used to be. It has now become a market and high-end restaurants. Speightstown’s indigenous commerce has moved from coastal Speightstown to what they designed as a bypass [road].”
He was referring to the KNR Husbands Highway, formerly known as the Speightstown By-Pass Road.
“So that your development must be related to people, your physical development must be related to human interest and Speightstown has suffered because the physical development of Speightstown has not been related to . . . human cultural and commercial interest,” Thorne said.
“But people are creative, and those who live in Speightstown or work in Speightstown will tell you that while the main street has become high-end, the local people have moved inland and the bypass . . . that is where local commerce is now emerging. But it is not as vibrant as it used to be.”
Thorne said Speightstown had “a great cultural heritage, but Governments have tended to focus on the high end . . . on the coast, which has destroyed the character of this great town, of this beautiful town, of this centre of commerce and culture”.
“And so the indigenous people, the local people, are forced to move inland because the coast is desirable, and the coast attracts big money.
“When the coast attracts big money, it forces the small people out and we have seen before our very eyes the death of a town at the hands of big money,” Thorne said. (SC)
