Labour Minister Dwayne Seymour has voiced his upset at some members of Parliament who he said are dragging their feet on authorising further work on the East-West Arterial.
“It is quite frustrating,” the Bodden Town East MP said on Thursday, 14 Sept. “The only thing left me to do now is to get a heavy equipment licence and drive the bulldozer myself.”
The road, which was first gazetted in 2005, has been designed to improve traffic flow between the east and west of Grand Cayman, particularly at peak times.
While the western part of the road has been built, further work has been held up by the legal requirement for an environmental impact assessment for some areas.
In April, a private member’s motion called for the assessment on a section of the planned road from Hirst Road to Lookout Gardens to be scrapped.
A heated debate in Parliament ensued, with Premier Wayne Panton, who is also Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change, arguing against the motion.
However, when it came to the vote, all 17 sitting MPs, including the premier, voted in favour of skipping the assessment and moving forward with the road extension.
To date, construction has not begun on the debated section of the road.
‘Not satisfied’
Seymour, who was speaking on the ‘Dr. Doug in the Morning’ radio show on Gold on Thursday, said that while he cares about the environment, “people will always come first”.
“I’m not satisfied, that after one of the highest bodies in the land voted unanimously to build the road up to Lookout Gardens [it is not happening],” he said, adding that he helped draft the motion.
He said it is “very frustrating” when a group agrees to something and then, for whatever reason, whether personal or otherwise, refuses to honour it.
“In the Scottish Parliament, misleading the parliament normally leads to losing your portfolio as a minister,” he said from Jamaica, where he is currently attending a conference.
Seymour said he had discussed with “the leadership” that once the hydraulics and hydrology study was complete, the road could begin. They were completed in August, he said.
“There are too many delay tactics,” the minister said, resulting in “less sleep, less productivity, less family time, and all the other ‘lesses’” for residents driving across the island in peak hours.
“We vote for parliamentarians to bring laws, to make lives of our people better. It’s not about our own personal views,” he said.
‘People are more important’
The minister insisted that once he returns to Cayman he will continue to be relentless in finding relief for the people.
Since the motion was passed in Parliament, a number of Cayman conservation groups expressed their concern at the lack of an environmental impact assessment.
“We know we need to care for our environment. Our environment is very important, but I’d say that people are more important. People to me are more important,” Seymour said.
In a message to his fellow MPs, he said, “We need to stop playing games and just give the authorisation.”
He hinted that it is just a few select people who are holding up the project, and added that 90% of his colleagues support this initiative “because most of them are living it on a daily basis”.
“They are all suffering, [but] we all need to care whether we suffer it or not… we’re all in this together.”
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