CODE PROPOSED
The Barbados Building Code would be used in accordance with the regulations of the proposed Planning and Development Act.
This was noted by Chartered Town Planner, President of the Barbados Town Planning Society and Member of Government’s Consulting team for Planning Legislation Reform Dr. Yolanda Alleyne during a joint technical meeting which brought together practitioners in the construction and building sector to hear more about the changes to the Planning and Development Act.
According to Dr. Alleyne, “This legislation provides us with an ideal opportunity. A piece of legislation that requires you to use it. So this Planning and Development Act requires you to build according to the Building Code and append it as a part of the regulations of the Act, that is the proposal,” she said.
President of the Barbados Institute of Architects, Vicki Telford, explained that typically the architects and engineers on a project will refer to the Building Code.
“Whether it is the Barbados Building Code or the International Building Code. But... 85 per cent of the projects are not often done by architects and engineers. It is those then that would be lacking the Building Code’s guidance. So as we go into this new legislation the Building Code is referred to. So it has to be reviewed to see how it is going to work within this whole structure,” she said.
President of the Barbados Association of Professional Engineers (BAPE) Trevor Browne added, “We have a Building Code since 2013. The problem we have is that there is no law in Barbados that you have to adhere to the Building Code. So it’s like an advisory piece of work.”
According to Browne, “the Building Code is the acceptable minimum. That in a hurricane region like us, the minimum, we would want something that stands up to 130 miles per hour. So the Building Code will specify things like that. You see the problems that we are having with sick buildings. The building code specifies the type of ventilation- installed and maintain.”
Browne highly commended the proposed legislation saying that it will revolutionise the way engineers work in Barbados.
“This has been a work in progress for 18 months now but it has been the first opportunity for our members en masse to sit down and hear what is going to happen, what is contemplated. What the challenges are.”
Telford also commended how the proposed changes are being made to the legislation.
“I think that is great because you are going to have the architects, the engineers, and land surveyors, contractors working with the consultants who know the legislation as well as the law and the loopholes and everything that relates to the legal aspect of it which the stakeholders, the professional in the building industry are not going to know it in that detail.”
“We support it entirely. Granted it needs to be fleshed out, discussed and so on but the organisations are in full support,” she reiterated.
Dr. Alleyne also noted that the changes are long in coming. “It is something that the Town Planning Society, in terms of transparency and modernising the system, we have been talking about that for years. So it is an opportunity that we couldn’t let slip, an opportunity to lead and be a part of it. We jumped on that because we really want to see the change,” she said. (JH)