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Last night we told you about the situation with Cindarella Plaza in Belize City. One week ago, the Mayor said that the Ministry of Works would pave it – and yesterday the Ministry said it would do no such thing: they built the canal underneath the street; paving the surface is CITCO's job. Yesterday, Councillor Phillip Willoughby said that they're hoping that when the 21 million dollar municipal drainage is finished – there'll be some contingency funds available to come up with the half a million dollars or so need to pave that stretch and a portion of Baymen Avenue. Well, truth is there won't be; the money has all been spent or programmed. So we asked the Mayor today what's going to happen:

Darrell Bradley - Mayor, Belize City

"The reality though is that the area has to be completed, it will either be completed by the project or if not by some other agency including the city council so that we're trying to see how we can work with the various entities to ensure that's done as soon as possible. Last time we had our public meeting; this was one of the things that was raised. Two pivotal areas were raised, Cindarella Plaza and the area in front of Publics and I think that these are two areas where admittedly there is public disquiet in relation to the lack of completion of those projects and these are two areas that the city council has placed as a priority. So the next works that occur will occur along Cindarella Plaza and along the area of East and West Canal."

"The city council has the legal mandate for street construction and maintenance, that's by law, this is a city council street, ultimately the responsibility is for the city council. The flood mitigation project is a project that is internationally funded; it's funded by the Inter-American Development Bank. The implementing agency is the Ministry of Works; we as the city council are a stakeholder because we have the legal obligation to deal with road works. We have Councillor Phillip Willoughby who is providing coordination efforts between the flood mitigation project as a member of the steering committee and the city council in terms of the inspections and ensuring we have community involvement and ensuring that we do cooperative efforts. For example several of the streets that were done under that project was done by the city council but the flood mitigation project did the side-walks and we cooperate in other areas; ultimately however if we continue to have a delay then its city's responsibility because the law places that responsibility on the Belize City council for the maintenance and construction of streets."

Again, the Ministry of Works has said they have no funds to pave the area.