Thorne: Consult residents before changing anything in Oistins

Not only must Oistins not “lose its identity” in any
proposed physical development earmarked for the area but residents must be consulted on the matter even before the engineers.

Member of Parliament for Christ Church South Ralph Thorne SC made that position clear as he added his voice to Tuesday’s debate in Parliament on a resolution to approve the Barbados Physical Development Plan as amended in 2023. The plan outlines the administration’s vision for several areas, including Bridgetown, Speightstown, Oistins, Six Roads, and Holetown.

Thorne told the lawmakers that under the plan, there should be no confusion between development and modernisation, and while he was prepared to “move this document beyond an exclusively physical document – a physical development plan – we cannot and we will not, and we must not have a physical development plan unless it embraces the interest of humankind”.

He explained that development that describes itself as physical must relate to issues of culture as a town derives its identity not from buildings, cars, trees, and houses but from its people.

“I read Section 9 of the document. It spoke to the history of Oistins, it spoke to the character of Oistins, and there is a portion that describes future plans as tourism-oriented; there’s good in that, and there is danger in that. 

“I will insist that Oistins, for as long as there is an Oistins, it must not lose the identity, must not lose its identity as a fishing town; and that expresses itself on the coastal side of that main street,” Thorne stated, adding the Oistins is a very narrow urban corridor while Bridgetown is expansive and the commercial centre Warrens is expansive. 

Apart from its residents, Thorne stated, the identity of  Oistins resides in the boatyard, the Berinda Cox Market, the fish market and the Bay Garden.

He noted that the physical development plan showed that the civic centre which encompasses the library and includes the bus stand will be relocated to the other side of the street to be replaced by hotel development.

“That pleases me, and I am sure that will please the citizenry of Oistins. Except the citizenry of Oistins do not wish to be excluded ever from any physical development plan that attends that town . . . . The development is welcomed, but please do not commit the mistake that lots of developers commit,” Thorne cautioned, adding that developers must not “come into an area of people who have lived for 90 and 95 years without consulting them as to physical development, without consulting them as to the morays, the attitudes, the values, that identity that makes the town”.

“Consult with them before you consult even with the engineers.  And so the boatyard must remain, and so the market must remain, and so the Bay Garden must remain . . . ,” the MP insisted.

At the same time, he called for a recreational facility for the young people of the area to be a part of the plan.

“When we physically develop Oistins, when we consider the human factor, let us . . . consider a recreational area for the young men and women of Oistins . . . . The only physical direction that Oistins can develop itself is to the east  . . . . There is a large area in Carters Gap,” Thorne said. 

He said the plan also addressed, in part, a traffic management plan, and he proposed the creation of “a mall of Oistins” along the stretch of road in front of the Bay Garden on weekends.

“….Stop the flow of traffic along that roadway, let the buses and cars go up Oistins hill and come down by the church and come back down …. I think we may want to consider that  . . . on Saturday afternoon, what is now the roadway, can be cobblestone and it can have tables and umbrellas.

“We want to ensure that physical development marries itself to culture and the identity of Oistins must remain an identity that is bound up in the identity of the people. We have no problem with Oistins being called a fishing town and it is because it is called a fishing town that we have attracted the attention of the world,” Thorne added. (FW)