PUT A PERCENTAGE OF THE MONIES collected from road taxes into a legislated fund to deal with the maintenance of the island’s pothole-filled roads.
This was the suggestion from president of the Barbados Association of Professional Engineers (BAPE), Lieutenant Colonel Trevor Browne, and his BAPE colleague Andrew Hutchinson, who said a National Road Maintenance Fund should be non-political to keep it from the whims and fancies of the political directorate.
Browne and Hutchinson, along with fellow BAPE member Vincent Jones, were guests on yesterday’s Starcom Network Brass Tacks Sunday call-in radio programme.
“We are calling for the establishment of a National Road Maintenance Fund to be legislated in Barbados. We are suggesting that 60 per cent of all vehicle registration fees and licence fees that are associated with the use of our highway be allocated to that fund, and that a national authority of professional persons, and I want to say non-political persons . . . because we cannot afford to have such a valuable asset as our road network being subject to willy-nilly political changes,” Browne declared.
“These things must be driven by technology and technological, professional engineering decisions. What we need is a consistent national policy upon which we can build,” he added.
Hutchinson stressed that the condition of the island’s infrastructure was vital if Barbados wanted to maintain its position as an important service economy. And the island’s road network required “planned maintenance and a budget to execute that plan”. (HLE)
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