For almost a week now, 7News has been telling you about the announcement from the Belize City Council that they were moving the bus stop from in front of the Supreme Court to Regent Street West near Mike's Club.
As we've showed you, a part of that announcement was that City buses were being banned from driving on Albert Street, and neither could they pick up passengers along it. It would mean that everyone would have to walk to the new location on Regent Street West to catch a bus.
Well, tonight, it would seem that there was a miscommunication. That's what we were told when we caught up with Belize City Mayor, Darrell Bradley, who was out of the country until yesterday. He told us that buses aren't banned from Albert Street. But that's not what his Councilor said!
So, to make sure we're not hearing wrong, we'll also air our interview with the City Councilor with responsibility for Traffic, Alifa Elrington-Hyde, who first made the announcement a week ago:
Jules Vasquez
"We've always known that there are multiple bus stops and unofficial bus stops between Albert and Regent Streets - you all are saying, that will end?"
Alifah Elrington Hyde - City Councilor - Transport
"Yes, that will end - I have made it clear to my traffic manager to put in writing that we are cracking down on enforcements with respect to all means of transportation. As it is now what we're doing, we're ensuring that buses no longer run down Albert St. - that's how we're starting."
Jules Vasquez
"That's effective when?"
Alifah Elrington Hyde
"I'm not sure if it's in effect yet but it should be in effect within the next week if it hasn't as yet."
Jules Vasquez
"No buses?"
Alifah Elrington Hyde
"No buses down Albert Street - so the buses won't be able to come up Orange Street anymore and go down Albert Street. The buses will have to go the long route to hit Regent Street."
Jules Vasquez
"And then how do you answer all those people that say that they have their shopping bags and they need to get on the bus in front of William Quan?"
Alifah Elrington Hyde
"Well, unfortunately they'll have to walk a little more - that's all I can say. Yes, we want people to continue to support the businesses downtown but at the same time we need to change the vision of our city."
So, we stress tonight that according to Mayor Darrell Bradley, City Buses CAN use Albert Street, and they can pick up passengers. The only serious decision which was made was the relocation of the Bus Stop, which Bradley told us was part of the Belize City Master Plan. Here's how he explained why those concerns of safety were carefully considered, and how they plan to deal with it:
Darrell Bradley, Mayor of Belize City
"Do you know the City Council is implementing the Master Plan for Belize City and part of the Master Plan calls for the re-development and expansion of the downtown area? What we are looking at creating is we are looking at creating a wider loop of traffic in the downtown."
"The idea is that we want to expand the loop. The loop currently is Albert and Regent Streets and that's where the traffic circulates. We want the loop to be Regent Street going on to Regent Street West and then on to East and West Canal. We are doing is gradually expanding the commercial areas and if you can see our infrastructure projects - they are connecting the Albert and Regent Streets area with East and West Collet Canal and then onwards to Central American Boulevard."
"Our analysis in the Master Plan tells us that that is going to be beneficial for security and is also going to promote a lot of economic development and job creation in the security areas. Some of the concerns that I have heard are I think right place and do have merit and we are ensuring that the facility that we build will have a canopy to ensure that its sheltered in case of rain. It will have proper lighting in the evening time to provide for security and we are working with the police to actually station a security booth that's going to be manned by a police officer in that area."
"It was announced by Councilor Elrington in terms of what the City Council is doing with the relocation of that bus stop. That was not a unilateral decision because it's something that was advised to us."
Alifah Elrington Hyde - City Councilor - Transport
"There was no consultation with respect to changing the bus routes. There was no consultation with respect to changing the bus stop. I don't think the Council thought it necessary to have a consultation of that nature because we didn't foresee that it would cause such controversy to change the bus stop."
"It's a situation where we saw a problem and we were trying to fix a problem."
Darrell Bradley, Mayor of Belize City
"What we need to do is we need to emphasize our consultation efforts with the public so that we educate them that this City does have a Master Plan and the Master Plan will contain things in there which are not popular."
Later, we'll have a little more on from Bradley, where he spoke about the cement streets on which work seems to have stalled for an inordinately long time, much to the inconvenience of drivers.
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