Dear Editor,
Are we indeed about to resume our discussion on a “Georgetown Development Plan still to take off after six years”? (SN 17.6.08) Could it be the result of some misguided sense of correctness that, having paid for that plan it should be implemented, whether it seemed feasible or not – whether it solved any problems and offered improved conditions of use or not.
We have not been given a copy of this plan or what it proposes to do with the lives of the residents of our capital and ‘agri-coastal’ region, but from reports about ten years ago, global warming and climate change will add to the frightening scenes in Al Gore’s film of huge sections of ice and snow breaking off from icebergs, melting and increasing the level of the Arctic Ocean. With a similar effect of melting ice cover in the Antarctic, the global rotation of our planet will start moving the increased levels of rotating volumes of ocean water from the North and South Poles towards the Equator causing death and destruction to low-lying mainland and island costal settlements.
With virtually all countries attempting to improve their industrial strength and with increasing vehicular traffic moving on petrol-burning engines, there is a general increase in the polluting of the air we breathe. There is also an increasing cost of general food supplies to help replace losses and deficiencies in this and any other important areas of production.
Perhaps the first consideration in this exercise should be an assessment of the planning of the capital, Georgetown itself. As mentioned in an earlier article the Georgetown plan was laid down over two hundred years ago in the days when the main form of travel and transportation was effected on or by horse, donkey or cow. Street blocks, road widths and probably tethering areas in front of or at the side government, public or commercial areas were of course important items of consideration in the design. The layout of towns which were initially inadequate for motor cars and other vehicular traffic will obviously continue to be so with a rapidly increasing volume of vehicular traffic in and around Georgetown.
Not having been given the opportunity to evaluate the proposals that must have been made in the Georgetown Development Plan, the only criticism that can be offered is that the whole issue appears to have been improperly handled.
Yours faithfully,
R O Westmaas
