Mottley has vision for Speightstown as regional arts centre

Prime Minister Mia Mottley wants to see Speightstown become the centre of arts and heritage in the region.

She made her intentions known at the official reopening of Archer’s Hall Design Centre Inc. in Speightstown, St Peter on Wednesday evening, almost two years after the establishment was extensively damaged by a fire at a neighbouring business.

Mottley said Government had embarked on several projects aimed at enhancing “this small quaint town that really ought to be the centre of arts and heritage not just in Barbados but, I’d like to suggest, in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean area”.

“For me, the passion is there for the preservation of Speightstown as that key heritage town for Barbados,” she added.

Noting that her administration had worked to make the northern town an ideal location to do business, including by restoring the nearby jetty and completing the Salt Pond project to mitigate flooding in the area, the Prime Minister added: “We want it to be that place where people can find their creativity but people can also find the distribution for the products which they are creating and to be able to earn a living.”

Mottley said she was pleased to see that the owners of Archer’s Hall Design Centre Inc., sisters-in-law Monique and Terri Archer, with the aid of the former’s father, Bjorn Bjerkhamn, had expressed confidence in the area by rebuilding after the September 3, 2020 fire.

Mottley promised that additional projects would be coming to Speightstown to help enhance the reputation of the northern town.

“What you see today is simply the private sector version of what the Government has been doing in Speightstown, placing our confidence in the future of this town to be able to provide jobs, to be able to earn for our people, but above all else to be that place for the people of the north to gather and to be able to find their place not just for entertainment but for food, for business and for all that you need,” she maintained.

“Rural societies need towns in order for business to flourish and this is what Speightstown had been for nigh 400 years…. This investment as quickly as it was made represents confidence, not only confidence in your business but confidence in the town and the country to provide the opportunities for you to get a return on the investments which you have made here, and that’s what this is about.

“Our country needs growth now and I’m satisfied that we can do it…. The pipeline of investments, not only just in the north but across the entire country, is looking very good. The projects will come and will be completed and this is an example of it,” the Prime Minister added.