Ministry Reviews Traffic Oversight in San Pedro and Caye Caulker With Planned Reforms

Changes will soon be coming to the islands of San Pedro Town and Caye Caulker as leaders of the Ministry of Transportation toured the areas on Friday.  The purpose of the trip to the islands was for the department’s officials to familiarize themselves with the functions of the Traffic Control Committee and to review the appointment of its members. One proposed change to the board is the inclusion of a police officer, which the CEO of the Ministry of Transportation, Chester Williams, believes will make a meaningful difference.

Chester Williams, CEO, Ministry of Transport: “Basically in both of the islands the minister got a brief from the committee members and the minister and myself expressed our expectations of the committee with a view to see how best the ministry, the committees and even the local government IE the village council and town council respectively of Caye Caulker and San Pedro can work together with a view to see how we can enhance the entire issue of traffic flow as well as the vehicle congestion issue affecting both islands particularly San Pedro. We’re now waiting for the approval from the Commissioner of Police in respect to the appointment of those two officers on the board and once the green light is given by him, which I’ve spoken to the Commissioner of Police on the phone and he’s given his approval in principle that he’s going to see to it. So it’s just a matter for us to get a formal reply from the ComPol and we should be able to go ahead with the appointment of the senior police officers to both of those boards.”

One of the major challenges facing the islands is traffic congestion. CEO Williams confirmed that a team will soon be dispatched to conduct a data-driven study aimed at identifying effective solutions to manage and reduce the problem and enhance the flow of traffic.

Chester Williams, CEO, Ministry of Transport: “Well the congestion needs to be addressed in tandem with the town council in San Pedro. You’d know that the traffic control in San Pedro being a town is for the most part controlled by the town council traffic officers. Yes we do have DOT officers in San Pedro but they’re just there to complement the efforts of the town council’s offices. But what we need to do is to ensure that we regularize the importation, we need to do an assessment in terms of how many vehicles are on the island, who own the vehicles, how many vehicles does one person own. These are things we have to look at. It cannot be that we say to persons you cannot import a vehicle when you have other persons who may have three, four, five vehicles on the island. There must be equity in terms of what we do. And so there’s a whole scheme of things that we are looking at. I have tasked the Chief Transport Officer to send a team to San Pedro to work with the Town Council traffic to do a study with a view to see how they can collect data that is going to be able to guide the process of regularizing the importation of vehicles on the island as well as just to be able to see what type of vehicles are on the island , small vehicles, bigger vehicles etc. When you look at the law that governs the importation of vehicles to the island it speaks to several facts that the board must take int consideration in determining whether or not to grant these permits to import vehicles to the island. And so it’s a matter for board to ensure that they apply as the law stipulates I think that once that is done then certainly we shouldn’t have any difficulties. But at the end of the day we are here as a ministry to work with the local governments in those two municipalities with a view to see how we can enhance the flow of traffic within those two areas.”

The board is expected to be appointed in the coming weeks.