PP Colin O'Neal spoke on how the capital Road Town  has changed over the years, and suggested ways in  which the Club can join up with local authourities to improve our capital.  His speech is attached below:

1960s Road Town

• One road with two way traffic – traffic so light and so slow that you could still safely play in the street
• Main Street was typical of small town streets – houses interspersed with shops or homes built above shops.
• It was a place where people lived and worked
• Mostly clean and tidy
• Activity along the waterfront with some private wharves and the central wharf opposite the Post Office. In this same area was the public market, craft shops, bars and restaurants, merchants of various types – drugs store, dry goods, variety stores, Government offices, post office
• Road Town was also alive at night – stores opened in the evenings on Saturdays and there were several bars and restaurants where entertainment was available
• Wickham’s Cay reclamation – planned town with various amenities – a new town with a mix of uses.
• Was not built with British Virgin Islanders in mind and in fact was built to exclude them
• Not sustainable – socially, politically or otherwise
• Wickham’s Cay over time became the commercial center of Road Town with the old center – Main Street being gradually drained of commercial activity and population
• Wickham’s Cay largely developed as a commercial center
• I would argue that for the most part, the mixed-use vibrancy that had existed before was largely gone and Road Town is mostly a 9 to 5 town.

Road Town Today

• Today, very few people live on Main Street and commercial activity has become more spread out.
• At the same time, Wickham’s Cay has relatively few people living there as well.
• Central Road Town is no longer a place where many people live
• Road Town
• Traffic congestion – made more intractable and complicated by a secondary road network which doesn’t tie in with the main network.
• Not pedestrian friendly – few sidewalks in good condition
• Noisy – the loud blare of music from cars and the racket of engine brakes on heavy trucks speeding through the town
• Failed infrastructure
• Crime and vagrancy
• Lacking in green space
• Lacking in shelter
• Lack of trees
• Unregulated traffic
• No activity after working hours
• Informal vending at multiple locations

1. The neighborhood has a discernible center. This is often a square or a green and sometimes a busy or memorable street corner. A transit stop would be located at this center.
2. Most of the dwellings are within a five-minute walk of the center, an average of roughly 0.25 miles (1,300 ft; 0.40 km).
3. There are a variety of dwelling types — usually houses, rowhouses, and apartments — so that younger and older people, singles and families, the poor and the wealthy may find places to live.
4. At the edge of the neighborhood, there are shops and offices of sufficiently varied types to supply the weekly needs of a household.
5. A small ancillary building or garage apartment is permitted within the backyard of each house. It may be used as a rental unit or place to work (for example, an office or craft workshop).
6. An elementary school is close enough so that most children can walk from their home.
7. There are small playgrounds accessible to every dwelling — not more than a tenth of a mile away.
8. Streets within the neighborhood form a connected network, which disperses traffic by providing a variety of pedestrian and vehicular routes to any destination.
9. The streets are relatively narrow and shaded by rows of trees. This slows traffic, creating an environment suitable for pedestrians and bicycles.
10. Buildings in the neighborhood center are placed close to the street, creating a well-defined outdoor room.
11. Parking lots and garage doors rarely front the street. Parking is relegated to the rear of buildings, usually accessed by alleys.
12. Certain prominent sites at the termination of street vistas or in the neighborhood center are reserved for civic buildings. These provide sites for community meetings, education, and religious or cultural activities.
13. The neighborhood is organized to be self-governing. A formal association debates and decides matters of maintenance, security, and physical change. Taxation is the responsibility of the larger community.

1. Puts people above cars
1. make the town more pedestrian friendly
2. doesn’t add more parking except if it can be made multi-level
3. doesn’t increase traffic flow quantity through the Road Town but instead encourages public transit by establishing bus routes, bus stations
4. Limits the size of vehicles imported into the territory
2. Create more green spaces                               
3. Cut down on noise pollution – a necessary requirement for business and residences
1. Enforce rules against blaring car stereo systems
2. Bans the use of engine brakes in Road Town
4. Establish rules for trash removal and prohibit the placing of trash for pick-up on the sides of roads or on sidewalks

• spearhead cleanup drives,
• fund signage and place markers,
• assist on restoration works,
• repairs on public buildings,
• buy and place garbage bins,
• buy and place benches adjacent to sidewalks,
• public education on civic responsibility,