Enforcement needed throughout ‘lawless’ BVI

The man at the helm of the territory’s Town and Country Planning Department, Gregory Adams, is among persons raising fresh concern about the wanton disregard for laws in virtually all aspects of life throughout the British Virgin Islands (BVI).

He thinks the territory has fallen down on the enforcement of laws and policies.

“I agree 100 percent that enforcement has been and continues to be one of the issues that we grapple with; it’s not unique to [Town and Country] Planning.”

“If you look at the way we have people violating any number of laws in the territory, we have to say that across the board enforcement is a challenge,” Adams declared .

He underscored the importance of ensuring that policies being crafted also have an enforcement component. “Unless and until we can arrest that [issue regarding enforcement], we will be grappling with this for years to come. We have to do things that put policies and laws in place that actually have enforceable components that get people’s attention.”

Adams was speaking a few days ago at a community meeting held as part of the ‘enVision 2040’ assessment, which the European Union is funding to help inform better land development in the BVI.

A citizen who attended the meeting, Cindy Rosan-Jones, said she too is concerned about the level of lawlessness in the society, adding that it is sometimes facilitated by political forces. “We have a big problem in this country and it’s called politics – we can’t get past it,” she lamented.

Rosan-Jones also stated that, going forward, a campaign aimed at changing the mindset of the people is probably necessary. “Lawless – I put myself in there. We like doing what we want. I think we have our most spoil generation right now; it takes generations to change our mindset.”

“I see houses going up and they have no parking spaces. They are parking on the Government road, traffic is held up; people are just doing what they want. So, I don’t know if [there should be] a campaign to try to change the mindset of our people or something,” Rosan-Jones further said at the meeting.