Prime Minister Freundel Stuart looks
on attentively as Planning Assistant
Jerome Walcott explains how a facet
of the Town & Country Development
Planning Department’s operations
works. Chief Town Planner, Mark
Cummins (second from right) and
Planning Assistant Stacy Batson
look on.??(C. Pitt/BGIS)

Prime Minister Freundel Stuart now has a better understanding of the operations of this island’s loan town planning approval agency, following a near three-hour tour of the Town & Country Development Planning Department last Friday.

He was accompanied by Permanent Secretary (Special Assignments) in the Prime Minister’s Office, Captain Randolph Straughan.?? During the tour, Mr. Stuart was introduced to the staff and got a first-hand look at the process from the submission of applications through to the decision process.

Mr. Stuart remarked: "Coming here today [last Friday] allowed me to see close-up what happens at the input level, how they are converted through a series of decisions to the output to which so many people complain.?? I now understand that the people who complain do not understand the processes through which Town Planning decisions have to pass before the stage is reached before an informed decision is made.

"…If they knew more about what is going on inside the Town Planning Department they would be a lot more cautious in the things they say about the department.

The Prime Minister commended the staff for their outstanding work and described the tour as an educational experience.?? "From this point of view, I am in a better position to defend the department because it is frequently in need of defending from those persons, who believe that as long as they submit an application, the results should be back in their hands at the snap of a finger…," he noted.

jwilson@barbados.gov.bb

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