People’s Assemblies can advocate for better sanitation service, road repairs

The proposed People’s Assemblies to come on stream sometime in the near future, will be able to advocate for better service in the area of sanitation and road repairs, amongst other things.

Chair of the Thorne Commission on Local Governance, Ralph Thorne QC acknowledged the above, as he spoke recently about the People Assemblies, which have been described as “community-based, people-participatory, governance structures”, designed to give communities more say in the management of their affairs. The Thorne Commission on Local Governance, was launched earlier this year, to make way for the non-partisan Assemblies.

Outlining the structure of the Peoples Assemblies, Thorne meanwhile noted that each People’s Assembly could establish a “Sanitation and Road Repairs Committee”, to respond to emergency cases of garbage pile-ups, excessive overgrown bush, or pot-holes in the minor or community roads of the Assembly area.

In a concept paper issued during a meeting with the media, which outlines the “Proposal for a system of community-based People’s Assemblies”, it has also been noted that where such emergency cases present themselves, the Committee would be able to respond immediately, by contracting a community-based service provider and his or her local community-based workers to clear away the health hazard or to carry out limited patching or filling of the minor or community road. In addition, the “Sanitation and Road Repairs Committee” could be mandated to carry out general environmental protection and anti-littering campaigns in the Assembly area.

Thorne has stressed that the People’s Assemblies could put pressure on government to act, where it is felt adequate services are lacking.

In the Proposal, recommendations have also been made for the Oversight of Government Agencies and it has been noted that the pool of some 620 Assembly-men and women could be used to establish several “Over-sight” or “Public Accountability” committees, to carry out the function of overseeing the performance of several government agencies that provide critical services to the Barbadian public, in order to ensure that said services are efficiently and effectively delivered and that there is accountability to the people of Barbados.

The service-providing State institutions that perhaps require oversight were named as the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the Polyclinics; the National Housing Corporation (NHC), particularly the NHC’s housing estates, the Transport Board; the Barbados Water Authority; the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation; the Royal Barbados Police Force and the Welfare Department.

A series of town hall meetings meanwhile will commence this month, for Barbadians to have their say on the People’s Assemblies. The Town Hall Meetings will be held on Wednesdays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., starting this week. The first will be on November 6 at Graydon Sealy Secondary. Other meetings to follow will take place on November 13 at Darryl Jordan Secondary; November 27 at Princess Margaret Secondary and on December 4 at West Terrace Primary. (RSM)