With the running out of an amnesty last December for owners to get rid of derelict vehicles which are creating an eyesore across Anguilla, the Government is taking decisive action to ensure that the situation is addressed once and for all.

Ralph Hodge

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Social Development, Ralph Hodge, said the intention was to make the island a much tidier place. He went on: “Anguilla depends on tourism and we are at the upper end of the market. I think we are going to have to make certain that Anguilla is tidy as possible to attract the people who come to the island. We are now looking at the question of derelict vehicles which we all know are very unsightly throughout Anguilla. In every village you can find a lot of these vehicles doing us harm. The Government has made several attempts to look at this problem and I think we are right on tract now.

“We have moved as a grouping recently – the Chief Minister’s Office, Physical Planning and the Ministry of Health. We decided where we want to go with this. The point person is the Principal Environmental Health Officer Lynrod Brooks. We have given an amnesty which ended in December and we are now looking at going to the next stage. We have agreed to approach Social Security for upfront funding from its development fund to clean up the island of derelict vehicles. This cost will be put to a revolving fund because the owners of the vehicles we move will be expected to return the payment to the Ministry of Health and that money will be used to continue finance the clean-up of the island as time goes by.”

It is understood that the commercial banks and other businesses on the island will also be requested to provide some of the financing. According to Mr. Hodge, about EC$125,000 is needed to clear the island of derelict vehicles. The Permanent Secretary in the Chief Minister’s Office, Rodney Rey, is sorting out the funding for the project.

Mr. Hodge continued: “We are also looking at the whole question of keeping the island clean through voluntary or paid litter wardens other than the mandated Environmental Health Officers and the police. We want to ensure that the traits of littering Anguilla will be stopped because it is very disheartening to walk the streets of the island and see how dirty they can be. The privatisation of the solid waste in recent times has made Anguilla a cleaner place…but despite the efforts of the solid waste contractors, we are still finding that people unnecessarily throw garbage around the place in a manner that is not acceptable. Motorists should keep empty bottles and cans in their vehicles until they can find a garbage tin. The general public should not use the streets as a large tin. It is very disheartening on some occasions to see tourists, as a matter of fact, throwing things through the windows of their vehicles. We certainly believe that litter wardens will bring a halt to this.

“The Ministry of Health is very aggressive in terms of its approach to the whole question of solid waste. We have recently privatised the Corito land-fill. The site looks much more controlled. I think the Ministry would certainly like to commend the efforts of one of our Environmental Health officers, Leroy Richardson, who supervises the land-fill. He has done a great service over the years, keeping a watchful eye for Government and the contractor, Warren Bryan, is doing quite a good job.” He added that the work should get better following recommendations by a PAHO engineering consultant, Winston Thomas.

Derelict vehicles at the Corito Land FIll Site

Crushed derelict vehicles form a substantial portion of the Corito land-fill. According to Lynrod Brooks, the Principal Environmental Health Officer, there are still over 1,000 derelict vehicles scattered across Anguilla.

In recent times the Ministry was able to initiate the removal of a large number of vehicles from various parts of the island and deposited them at the Corito land-fill. However, the build-up of old vehicles throughout the island over a long period has been such that there is still a great deal of work to be done.

Lynrod Brooks

According to Mr. Brooks, his Environmental Health Unit team wants to commence the clean-up drive in February after a bit more planning. “We need to have a couple more meetings. We are hoping to schedule a meeting sometime next week to finalise a plan of action. After that we will inform the public when the actual exercise will take place,” he told The Anguillian.

He was asked how his team would handle a situation where mechanics claim that old vehicles were being held on their premises for spare parts when needed. “If the mechanics can convince the Environmental Health Officers that they will use them for spare parts, I think we will give them a period of time to salvage whatever parts they think they would be able to use,” he stated.

Mr. Brooks had this timely advice for the general public: “In my view the people of Anguilla should consider that we have a tourism product to sell. The place must be presentable for our visitors when they drive around the island. It is sad to say that we have so many derelict vehicles on the road and people need to be more responsible for their actions. If a vehicle is unusable there is no need to have it on your premises. You should just take it to the land-fill site.
“When we hopefully get these wrecks taken up and disposed of at the land-fill site, we will be enforcing the legislation and people will have to pay for their actions. It is a difficult task and someone has to take the initiative. I think that the time has come for us here at the Unit to take that initiative.”

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