In a report published on the 7th of Jan. 2026, ‘PPM calls for the establishment of district councils’, it makes notice of a critical and frustratingly slow evolution in our local governance.
While I commend Hon. Kenneth Bryan and Hon. Joey Hew for resurfacing the establishment of this motion to the public’s eye, we must address the reality. This is inexcusable. The proposed motion is severely outdated, and its implementation has taken too many years.
As citizens of the Cayman Islands, we are all familiar with the unproductivity mentioned by Hon. Bryan, and it’s heartbreaking to realise the lack of progress shown. Only a fraction of proposed acts and motions were followed through with in this past decade. This situation feels like a repetitive cycle, much like what was done with ‘Mount Trashmore’ or the National Development Plan which required intervention of the 2024 Youth Parliamentarians to breathe life into it before taking last year.
While it is positive that district councils are finally being recognised as a priority, we must ask why it takes a decade or two to enact essential measures for representation in our community. Although Hon. Bryan was elected in 2017, many members of Parliament that have been in office since these concepts were first recommended. The collective failure to recognise and rectify this issue sooner points to a systemic ‘wait and see’ approach that no longer serves our growing islands.
To move forward, the government should not simply dust off old motions. A practical solution would be to establish a dual party ‘Council Implementation Taskforce’ that includes modern community leaders and youth representatives. This would ensure that the councils are not outdated upon arrival, but are instead designed to handle current infrastructure and social issues. Our country deserves a government that anticipates need rather than one that waits 20 years to act.
Brianna Greene
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