Ten contractors to fix a sports field! I ask you! These are not “contractors” or even “petty contractors.” They are “jobbing builders” to be employed by government. They might just as well be employed by the Public Works Department on the government payroll (this would probably be cheaper).
I really feel sorry for the member for the Fifth District, finding a grandstand that he knew nothing about being built in the A.O. Shirley Recreation Grounds under a $1 million contract from the Premier’s Office! Talk about disrespectful. How many times has that track had to be re-laid, and who are the morons who leave rubbish strewn all over it?
But then the Multi-purpose Sports Complex rose like a phoenix a few years ago, during the time of “floor crosser” Mark Vanterpool. Nobody knew where that came from, how much it cost, or who actually owns it. Renting it for functions seems to be extremely difficult. It is very short of amenities and finishing. Of course, that building destroyed any hope of cricket on the grounds — hence the belated repairs to the Greenland field.
So government has spent $300,000 on the horse track and is spending more on the stables.
It seems that government owns the track? The recreation ground? The Greenland field? So why are leaders reluctant to take ownership of any drag racing strip? Not that I want one.
We seem to be turning into a socialist dictatorship with government owning and controlling everything! I hear that the reason all works have stopped is because, despite signing contracts, when contractors go to finance for payments, they are told there is no money.
I wonder how much was paid to the Virgin Gorda medical complex designer before he went bust, and whether government is now a creditor?
New complex
Anybody notice? The Malone family can build a 70,000-square-foot complex at Pockwood Pond for $1.5 million (as reported in the Beacon last week). Government wants to build a 70,000-square-foot West End ferry terminal for a reputed $12 million! Some disparity there, surely? Oh yes! One is private (sort of) and the other is government!
Can somebody in the BVI Electricity Corporation explain why the fuel surcharge has suddenly gone up to nearly 100 percent? When are they going to increase the basic unit costs to a realistic level, so that the surcharge can be reduced?
I can only presume that at least some of the scooters have been imported and registered legally, even if they are being ridden dangerously by uninsured and unlicensed young riders. Who are the importers? As for illegal machines, what about the jet skis in Cane Garden Bay and Bitter End? Why are they tolerated? Is this another case, like the lottery tickets and horse race betting, of ignoring our own laws? What happened to the big motorbikes the police had a few years ago? Are they defunct? If so, why?
I thought the new bus service was private, but from a government tender notice in the press it seems as if government is expecting to run it?
‘Vexatious litigants’
With the end of the assizes, it’s pretty clear that we have what one might call several vexatious litigants. I don’t understand how virtual complainants can suddenly withdraw at, or before, trial, in cases that have been hanging around for months or years.
Either the police or public prosecutor should have thrown out the case long beforehand, or the virtual complainant should be charged with wasting court and police time. But nobody seems to see it my way. No wonder the courts never catch up. One would have thought that grabbing a man’s crotch in town in the daytime was hardly an indictable offence taking up so much time.
HOA meeting
The speaker of the House of Assembly continues in his weak ways. Why is he there? I think Communications and Works Minister Julian Fraser might have been out of order during the recent HOA meeting. But he wasn’t stopped, and I presume he felt he had no other way of introducing those topics as things stood?
Good luck with the curfew, Education and Culture Minister Andrew Fahie! Police state! Who is going to police it?
Quite a few people now find they have a new driving licence for just a few weeks or months until their other documents come up for renewal. What a debacle! I have said before I really would like to talk to the idiots who think these things up! Yes: idiots!
Now that the international media has got hold of the lemur story, perhaps Sir Richard Branson will have second thoughts?