On February 11^th I wrote: “After a quiet few weeks a storm is brewing”

I started off my Editorial, “With Government announcing that the Dart Deal was a Done Deal as it relates to the closure of the West Bay Road last Thursday (7) I was waiting for a storm to break.” (See link: http://www.ieyenews.com/2013/02/the-editor-speaks-after-a-quiet-few-weeks-a-storm-is-brewing/)

I was talking about the announcement by the government to close the West Bay Road and the NRA/Dart Deal is a Done Deal.

Despite the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Report not having been made public, but Government who have read the Report (subject to a few amendments) claiming it says the Deal is value for money, a number of the election candidates have said it is not.

How is that for preconceived opinions? All they had to do was wait a few days as Government has promised all will be revealed – soon!

Matthew Leslie, running for George Town, jumps on the band wagon of opposition because he thinks it will win him votes, bases his opinion that the deal does not provide good value for money because of “the fact that the people were misled on the actual length of road being given up…”

Jude Scott, running as a C4C independent, is quickly learning the art of political jargon. He says a lot without really saying much.

Speaking to CNS he said, “Government has failed to provide the necessary transparency to demonstrate to the people of the Cayman Islands that the government has gone through due process, made a proper analysis of value for money, or provided tangible and sustainable benefits to Cayman and Caymanians to support that the transaction is in the best interest of the Country.

“A good government should at all times understand what exit strategies and remedies are available to it regarding all significant transactions and should never proceed past ‘the point of no return’ until the government has sufficient evidence to satisfy itself, and can demonstrate to the people of the country, that to proceed is in the best interest of the country.”

Now Mr. Leslie you should quickly learn from Mr. Scott or your precise and clear words will come back to haunt you.

Leslie asks, “There must come a point where government must ask, ‘Is this good for the people?’

Yes, they did because Mr. Bush, publically supported by the present government, went to great pains to say it was.

As we still don’t have the details how can we argue with them? And the Dart group spokesperson, Jackie Doak,, has also made it clear with diagrams and lovely pictures, plus press releases, that Leslie may not have read, that crown property now being ‘corporate property’ will be used for the good of the people. An example is the Public Beach being extended and beautified including a beach volleyball court and many more cabanas.

 

Your “hope” in your reported statement – “I only hope that Dart will show good faith in allowing this land that went from being crown property to now being ‘corporate property’ to be used for the good of the people as promised,” has already been answered!!

 

It is!!

 

I am not too sure Woody DaCosta, “The Progressives” (PPM) candidate for West Bay is correct in his assumption “the Bridge” on the new road will become a bottleneck now. The portion of the West Bay Road being closed never did become a bottleneck even at the height of the rush hour unless there was an accident. The bottleneck is the traffic lights and to a lesser extent the roundabout. The roundabouts on the new section of road don’t exactly go anywhere at the moment except straight on where the vast majority of traffic wants to go.

 

Where I can agree is the lack of transparency by government on the Deal which I “knew” had to have been a done deal between Dart and NRA otherwise neither would have progressed with it as they have done with great costs. Dart is not stupid.

 

Miller is well within his rights to shout he will do all he can to overturn the NRA deal with Dart and re-open the road if he gets elected to government. Excellent talk and he might actually mean it. However, he must know it will be no easy thing. The cost of so doing may be too much this country can bear.

 

Paul Rivers came up with this lovely statement:

 

“Money talks and roads get closed, thanks entirely to the UDP and all who support them.  With the closure of this section of the road, it’s a dark indictment on the government’s lack of foresight for the safety of the West Bay people, should an accident or natural disaster make that one exit from the district impassable. One way in, one way out … over a bridge that is not impervious.”

Ahem. Don’t we only have one road at the moment in this location? And isn’t the new one a little further in land – away from the sea? And how many small modern bridges have collapsed?

I do love the phrase “a dark indictment” though. Super.

It’s wonderful having so much to write about now and it is just the beginning.

And remember…….  I told you so….