This page is a list of parochial information for Bermuda. That is, how to deal with broken streetlights, roads in need of repair, etc. in your parish. It turns out that there are people (civil servants) whose job it is to look after these issues, and in general they are trying to do a good job. However, their desks overfloweth with work and in those situations a call to your local MP can never hurt. Your MP (one hopes) is likely to have a good contact or relationship with the relevant department which can help priorities get juggled...
If you have any material that you think it might be useful to add, please send it on to me and I will post it here.
- Road Improvements. See this PDF for info about getting private and public roads fixed. I especially enjoyed this quote:
Please note that if the requests or recommendations originate from a political candidate, Senator, or Member of Parliament the request or recommendation must first be passed onto the Minister of W & E for review. As you can see the process already becomes bureaucratic. The Minister then passes it back to the PS and it is then appended to a list of action items that already exist. In other words, if there are 100 items on the list the new item becomes 101. The priority can change depending on the severity of the issue identified and the pressure levied.
- Streetlights. (As of September 2007, from the ministry) The resident should write to Remi Subair of the Electrical Engineering section of the Ministry of Works and Engineering requesting that the street be assessed for the provision of street lighting. An Officer of the Ministry will visit the site and determine if the lighting is sufficient or insufficient. If found to be insufficient, the Ministry will prepare a lighting scheme and share this with the residents along the street in question, seeking their approval of the scheme. If more than 50% of the residents support the scheme we then work to implement the scheme.
- Dumped Bikes. (From the RG, 15 September 2007)
In response to "A Solution to Problem of Dumped Cycles" of August 31, 2007: We recently had a situation where a bike had been abandoned in our neighbourhood. Making contact with the responsible authorities to request removal of the bike was the initial challenge. With a bit of determination we managed to track them down. They are indeed out there!
To make a long story short, here is the proven process of reporting and disposing of abandoned bikes: Step 1) Phone Police Headquarters, report an abandoned bike, provide the licence plate number, estimated time the bike has been in the location. Prior to the biking being deemed "abandoned", the Police must do an internal check to ensure it has not already been reported stolen. If not, then we can proceed to Step 2.
Step 2) Phone TCD and ask for Mrs. Sealey. Provide her with the license details, location of bike and verbal report from the police.
Step 3) TCD then contacts W&E (Mr. Outerbridge's crew at Bailey's Bay) and provides them with the proper authorisation to proceed with disposal. They will visit the site and place a sticker on the bike advising the public that it is officially abandoned, then collect for disposal.
A few weeks on, I noticed that the bike (what remained) had not been collected. Not to despair. I phoned TCD with a gentle reminder, and within an hour it was collected and presumably taken to Bailey's Bay, where it was disposed of in a manner compliant with Bermuda's environmental standards (a topic for another day!). As citizens (or in our case, residents), it can be discouraging when we want to be pro-active, be part of the solution, take appropriate actions, ultimately make a difference in our community.
PYet we struggle to find the correct contacts or sources responsible to facilitate this outcome. In this particular case, a few phone calls, a bit of patience and to their credit, a few exceptionally helpful people at TCD, W&E & the Police Department, and I feel like we've made a difference in our neighbourhood.
POSITIVE VIBES FROM PAGET