[dropcap]T[/dropcap][dropcap][/dropcap]he Office of the Mayor (Castries), on Tuesday January 16 made its first address to the nation for 2018. His Worship, Mayor Peterson D. Francis relayed the Castries Constituency Council’s (CCC) focus for 2018: “Safety of citizens and visitors to Castries through a crime and security plan,” and “development, sanitation and beautification”.
According to the mayor, as part of efforts to make Castries a safer zone for locals and visitors, fourteen new city police officers were sworn in during December 2017 with a group of thirty-six recruits to be appointed by the first quarter of 2018.
Redevelopment is also at the top of the council’s priority list, as an aim has been set to launch a vendors’ registration programme which will “incorporate uniformed tents for all vendors and will map-out the vending and no vending zones”. Vendors will also be required to pack and carry their tents home after each day’s work. This change, the Mayor indicated in answer to a question posed by a member of the media, will come at no immediately added cost to vendors. Mayor Francis stated, “We want people to recuperate their years of losses. We are now in the years of profit.”
A number of other plans for development were specified including the introduction of parking terminals and vehicle clamping, about which the Mayor highlighted, “Those parking terminals are already on-island. We are looking at implementation by the first quarter this year.” These changes are among plans for what the council considers “operation clean-up” — aimed at giving the country’s capital a face-lift.
About the disposal of garbage Mayor Francis says the council will work on a structured plan for proper waste disposal as well as “a green space and beautification programme”. His statements came days after public announcement that the Bananes Bay area will see a gradual transformation through a first phase beautification project and Tourism Minister Hon. Dominic Fedee’s 2017 announcements that the Castries market will undergo large-scale renovation.
Also, as part of the Office of the Mayor’s national address, Marketing Manager Jemma Thomas briefed the public on the group’s findings following the Assou Square 2018 post mortem. According to Ms Thomas, the event’s successes included high attendance, increased sales by vendors, the inclusion of the William Peter Boulevard, a lack of injuries and incidents and the infusion of cultural groups and local artists. Despite these successes the council did report a net loss of $106,818.32 — $23,910.34 higher than last year’s net loss. Ms Thomas explained, “The net loss was mainly due to the fact that we took on the whole Assou Square activities and we had quite a bit of added expenses coming on.” The marketing manager also acknowledged and denounced the incident involving some local artists and female audience members who were videoed dancing vulgarly on stage at what is considered a family event. She said, “Upon realizing what was happening our events manager speedily went to get the young ladies off the stage. We within this office are a responsible people. We take our jobs very seriously and while we had no control over the situation, we wish to apologize and we do guarantee that such an incident will not happen again.”
The CCC in 2017 made an effort in changing the trajectory of their image and influence on the Castries region. Having added initiatives like the mayor’s cup, staff gala awards, and the weekly Saturday City Nights, this year the council’s aim is to build upon last year’s triumphs and wilfully take on challenges in order to manifest lasting change.
