Government Was Warned

18 injured in minibus accident | Barbados Today: "18 injured in minibus accident
Added by Dawne Parris on January 26, 2014.
Saved under Local News

Police have confirmed that 18 people, including the driver, have been injured in the minibus accident which occurred in Gibbs, St Peter just after 4 pm today.

Police PRO Inspector David Welch said the minibus overturned on to its right side when Wendell Piyotte lost control of the vehicle.

Among the 18 people injured, five of them are in serious condition, including Piyotte, a resident of Upper Mount Standfast, St James.

Inspector Welch said seven people had to be taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital by ambulance.

The accident triggered a mass casualty response which included police, six doctors from the QEH, and personnel from the ambulance service, the Barbados Fire Service, the Barbados Defence Force, the Roving Response Team and the Disaster Emergency Management."

'via Blog this'

People who say 'I told you so' are never very popular, but through this blog, a petition, newspaper articles, and letters sent on our behalf by the current and former parliamentary representative for the constituency of St. James North, the Government of Barbados has been warned about the dangerous driving and hazardous road conditions in the Road View-Mullins-Gibbes area.  To our knowledge nothing has been done to date, except the demarcation of a center line of the roadway.  The question remains:  How many more innocent lives Government is prepared to see sacrificed and/or maimed before it acts on the behalf of its citizens and visitors to the island?  This blog will continue to keep watch and count.

To the reader:  If you ever use the roadway on foot or in a vehicle in the Gibbes, Mullins or Road View area, or if you care about road safety in Barbados, please sign the petition.  Again, the life you save could be your own. 

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West Coast Blog: Jetty Saved In Speightstown's Twin-City

West Coast Blog: Jetty Saved In Speightstown's Twin-City:

'via Blog this'

Speightstown Jetty Petition

Repair the Speightstown Jetty post haste in order to:

1. Restore a popular recreational spot for the residents of Speightstown and beyond.

2. Boost tourism in the area - as the jetty was also popular with visitors.

3. Help to ignite the rebirth of Speightstown - one of the hardest hit communities in Barbados by the global economic recession (re: the closure of Almond Beach Village, etc.).

Click here to sign petition: http://j.mp/StownJet

Read & Weep

Demolition work began this week on Kings Beach Hotel.  Whereas we are glad to finally see the back of what had become a major eyesore in Road View/Mullins over the last several years, it also is the end of affordable hotels in the area.   No idea yet what will replace it but look for something more in line with what's already built next door - a monstrosity where rack rates are high, tourists are few, the beaches are empty, and employment is scarce.

Mullins Beach Welcomes Opposition Leader Mia Mottley

"Beach vendors and watersport operators are praying for a turnaround in the tourism sector, so they can continue to earn a living.

Yesterday as Leader of the Opposition Mia Mottley continued the Rubbing Shoulders Programme, with a tour of the Dover, Pebbles, Holetown and Mullins beaches, vendor Robert Charmont was busy packing up his beach chairs and umbrellas having not made any sales for the day.

Charmont, who has 80 chairs and has been operating from Mullins Beach for the past seven years, said things have been “not so good”.  

He said since February the dire situation has forced him to turn to his savings which are almost gone.

“Money is not coming in. The little money I have put down for red days I have to go in it and pick, pick until things turn up good,” he said."

Source: NationNews.com

See also: Barbados Today

Easy Access Mullins Beach

Mullins Beach Bus Stop (Inbound)

One of the things that truly contributes to the popularity of Mullins Beach is its easy access along the coastal road - Hwy. 1B.  Just shy of eleven miles (18 km) north of Bridgetown are located the Mullins Beach Inbound and Outbound bus stops at the junction of Hwy. 1B and Mullins Road.  Of course, if you don't want to take the bus, there is always free parking along Mullins Road.  Bus fare is just $2.00 BDS in each direction.  Check the Barbados Transport Board's website for times and schedules.  Just type Mullins in the search box.

Easter Sabbath Road View Beach Lime

How's the beach?

Click here for story - https://www.facebook.com/groups/rvlime

How Many More?

THREE (3) MORE DIED ON THE ROAD VIEW - MULLINS - GIBBES STRETCH TODAY

  "THREE PEOPLE LOST their lives including a 14 month old baby, along Gibbes Road, Mullins St. Peter, this morning around 10:30 after the car in which they were travelling was involved in an accident with a mini-bus.
Police reports said the deceased are Sherese Alleyne 19, of Durants Village, St James, her son kion 14 months old and Nakira Harewood 17 years also of Durants, St. James. Alleyne and Harewood died on the spot while the infant died at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.The victims were travelling in the same vehicle." NationNews.com

Click here to sign the petition to curb the insanity.  See also: http://j.mp/rvSAFE

High Drama In The Coastal Zone

"Director of the Coastal Zone Management Unit, Dr Leo Brewster, has been sent on leave by Government and advised to retain an attorney-at-law.

A senior Government official told Barbados TODAY that Brewster was officially relieved of his duties on August 1 and that six charges would be brought against him stemming from an internal audit into the CZMU conducted more than two years ago by the office of the Accountant General.

The Government official indicated that the CZMU’s deputy director, Dr Lorna Inniss, had assumed responsibility for the management of the unit.

Almost three years ago Brewster was summoned before the Accountant General and asked to explain, among other things, the awarding of contracts for work within his department without adherence to the Financial Management and Audit Act, or the Financial Rules, 1971.

It was alleged that Brewster and one of his senior officers, hydrographer Lester Toppin, formed a company called 2007 that remained incomplete up to the time Innovations R Us Incorporated in September 2004, and two of the audit. In his report laid in Parliament the months later Brewster started awarding work at CZMU to Accountant general charged that under Brewster’s

his own company. The audit revealed that between 2005 and 2007 CZMU paid over $300,000 to Innovations R Us for a variety of services ranging from clearing sites and regrading sand to professional fees that went as high as $53,000.

The Accountant General also reported that CZMU awarded a contract to Innovations R Us at Graeme Hall Swamp, where equipment was purchased by the private company for CZMU and used by the former to carry out the work. An invoice was later made out in the name of CZMU but attached to an invoice from Innovations R Us stating “fees”. The Accountant General’s Office could not locate the equipment up to the time of the audit.

The Accountant General also said the private company’s invoices showed it collected VAT from the CZMU but did not pay it into the VAT Department. As a result, it was noted that Innovations R Us was indebted to Government and this should have precluded CZMU from doing business with it.

Amounts in excess of $60,000 per annum were also paid by CZMU to people who were not VAT registrants. The Accountant General cited where CZMU paid a company over $178,000 without any work quotations. The CZMU also made full payment to Innovations R Us for a project in March management, CZMU made out cheque payments to post office boxes for people who had no physical addresses.

The investigation raised a red flag with respect to conflict of interest when travel claims were made to CZMU for a site visit to a project at Ginger Bay, St. Philip, although the claimant was also a director of Innovations R Us which had been awarded the work. Brewster gave a written response to the Accountant General, indicating that CZMU had ended its dealings with Innovations R Us, and that he and his colleague had terminated their association with the company.

Brewster also promised that the CZMU would “ensure suitable quotations are sought in the future” with respect to work allocations.

In February 2010 Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin confirmed that the matter had been passed on to them. Brewster and workmate Lester Toppin removed themselves as directors of the company, Innovations R Us, in December 2007 but it continued to exist under new directorship."

Source: Barbados Today - "In Hot Water"

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