Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Mr. Speaker, over the last
day or so we have been hearing about the expectations of
Government with their financial programme. We heard
from the Honourable Member for St. Peter about the
programme for Speightstown and the surrounding areas.
We also heard him saying in this Honourable House that he
has allocated $3 million for rural development. I want to
reflect on something I said earlier in this session and I will
not quote the exact words so I would not find myself in
trouble.
When this House first dealt with rural development,
we dealt with a subsidy for $200 000 and I said at that
time that what we should have been dealing with for the
half year was probably $2 million and not $200 000. If in
the beginning as we were dealing with $200 000 and it
should have been $2 million for half a year I cannot see
how I can honestly support any Resolution, Bill or
whatever for $3 million for one whole year

Let us be serious, Sir. Speightstown or St. Peter is the
key area for development in the North of Barbados. You
heard the Honourable Member for St. Peter say that he
wants to see a jetty and there is need for a marketplace. I
have no problem with that because the Democratic Labour
Party set up a programme and a project at Spring Hall
called the Spring Hall Land Lease Project where we
encouraged farmers to lease land from the Government to
grow their produce. I honestly believe that Speightstown
would provide that place where these farmers could grow
their crops, reap their produce, bring them into
Speightstown and display their produce. Not only would
the farmers be able to use that marketplace but the
fishermen would be able to use the marketplace. The
people in the handicraft industry through rural Barbados
would be able to come into Speightstown as that central
point where we would be able to sell our produce, whether
it be to the locals or the tourists that would be coming into
Speightstown whether they would be coming by the cruise
liners, taxis, ZMs, BTs or the Zs.
Mr. Speaker, when you have a situation where you
are asking people to focus on Speightstown as the focal
point, then one can understand why in the early 1970s Mr.
Barrow decided that he wanted a hotel to the North of
Speightstown, the one that we now call Heywoods, One
would understand why Mr. Barrow went for projects like
the cement plant and this is all pan of rural development.
One would understand why he also had in his Manifesto a
small airport for the North of Barbados.
Sir, when we the Democratic Labour Party are
speaking about rural development, we are speaking about
true development and no token vote can do all that is
needed in rural Barbados. I am saying to this House that
the $3 million that is in the vote for rural development
cannot even repair all the roads in St. Lucy. It is
interesting. As I am always saying to this House, when you
are dealing with roads in a rural areas, you are not talking
about highways because whenever you build a tenantry
road it means that you are making provision for about 10
or 20 houses. The Honourable Member for St. Andrew will
agree with me on that, or the Honourable Member for St.
James North, or St. Peter. When you are talking about a
rural programme you must come back and agree with the
policies of the Democratic Labour Party. Our policy, as
was stated earlier by me in here on roads is we had
promised that we would have finished all the tenantry roads
by the end of 1995 which the Honourable Member for St.
Thomas agrees with me, and it is in Hansard,
Hon. D. A. C. SIMMONS: On a point of order, I am

not in the habit of agreeing with foolishness. I never agreed
that the Democratic Labour Party could finish all the
tenantry roads by 1995. For eight years they did
nothing for me in St Thomas, not one. They never
completed one tenantry road for eight years in St. Thomas.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Mr. Speaker, the
Honourable Member for St. Thomas is in Hansard as
saying that the Democratic Labour Party had planned to
construct all the tenantry roads by 1995 to win an election.
I would like to know how come he is in Hansard saying
that but the Honourable Member does not understand the
importance of tenantry roads. That is why I am going to
tell him now that once you build tenantry roads in rural
Barbados it has a different effect than in urban Barbados
because you build tenantry roads in urban Barbados for
houses that are there already and you build tenantry roads
in rural Barbados to encourage more houses and more
development.
I am saying, Sir, that it is very important that you
have roads in rural Barbados. It is very important to have
marketplaces. I know that once you have these facilities in
rural Barbados then those in central Barbados would be
able to have facilities at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and
they would not have to compete with us from rural
Barbados because we would still have the St. Joseph
Hospital which would be playing an important part in the
health services of Barbados.
Under a proper rural development, Sir, a place like St.
Joseph Hospital will be important. I cannot understand how
the Honourable Member for St. Peter could allow the
Honourable Member for St. James South to close St.
Joseph Hospital when he has such a nice programme for
rural Barbados, according to his pronouncements before the
elections. I cannot understand. The Honourable Member
has good plans for marinas. He has spoken to the Florida
Cruise Association to get cruise liners into Speightstown
and at the same time allows the Honourable Member for
St. James South to close down the Hospital when we could
have easily used the St. Joseph Hospital as a marketing tool
to convince everybody in the world that the place to come
to in Barbados is in the north of Barbados, rural Barbados.
It is amazing. I cannot understand how the
Honourable Member for St. James South, who is part of
rural Barbados, could close down a hospital in a rural
constituency. We must be very careful for the simple
reason that when we are looking at development in this
country, we must make sure that we are not interfering
with anything that would affect the progress of rural
Barbados. 1,40 p.m.
We have to be careful for the simple reason that when
we are looking at development in this country, we must
make sure that we are not interfering with anything that
would affect the progress of rural Barbados. I want to give
you a couple examples, Sir, I see nothing wrong with the
Prime Minister transferring some of the Government
services to Speightstown. In this day and age of modem
technology, there is nothing wrong with that. I do not see
why anybody from rural Barbados whether it be Crab Hill,
Mile-and-a-Quarter, Bawden, Horse Hill, Oxnards or even
Paynes Bay…
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: That is part of rural
Barbados. You are close to urban Barbados. You do not
think you are in rural Barbados anymore. Why should they
have to go to Bridgetown to get a passport or to pay their
Driver’s Licence or even to get a Police Certificate of
Character? I believe they should be able to go to rural
Barbados, Speightstown and get those services. The
Honourable Member for Christ Church South would agree
with me on that because he knows the meaning of
divesting some of these services and projects in Oistin.
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: He can understand why the
Honourable Member for St. Peter would want some of
these services in Speightstown. I have no problem with
that. I will support him.
I am also saying that the Honourable Member for St.
Peter should ask the Honourable Member for St. Joseph to
make sure that the project for the Naval Base Facility down
at Harrison Point, the land base cruise facility down at
Harrison Point be completed as soon as possible. Because
if you are going to attract cruise liners to Speightstown,
you are going to need those facilities.
It is very important to state in this House. You check
and see the sites that the cruise ship passengers go to and
you will see that nearly all of them are in rural Barbados.
When you have a marina in St. Peter and something
happens at sea, the people need to know that they still have
the St Joseph Hospital to go to. I am calling on the Prime
Minister, even if he needs to make a Cabinet reshuffle that
he does what is necessary to make sure that we still have
our hospital in the North.
I want the Prime Minister to understand that there
were plans under the IADB. We negotiated with the IADB
to have a polytechnic down at the Naval Base Facility as
well. At the same time we negotiated for the Youth Service
to have a permanent home at the Naval Base Facility.
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Read the records as you
always do. I do not know if someone hid that file from
you but I know you would check it out and you will make
sure that you come back and admit to me that we did that.
I am asking them to go back, look at and see all of
those projects that we had for rural Barbados and I should
like to see them implemented like yesterday, not tomorrow
or next year, Because when you have such sound plans and
policies, you do not expect any Minister to come and
decide that the main plank of development that he or she
is going to take away from the development.
What I should also like to see for Speightstown - I
know that it is not in my constituency but I am not going
to be selfish because it is very important to realize that
Speightstown is abutting and abounding, in some way, to
St. Lucy, St. Joseph, St. Andrew, whatever you want to call
it. I should like to see Speightstown expanded to the east
so that we would not have to worry about people bypassing
Speightstown, so that there will be commercial
development to the east in order for us to have an
expanded Speightstown so that the commercial activities in
Speightstown would be to the benefit of the other rural
constituencies.
Speightstown is the focal point in the north. Do not
let us deny it. We need to put finances into Speightstown.
I cannot understand when we should be spending $10
million to $15 million, how we could be spending $3
million. I cannot understand how any committee that is
about to be formed now could pretend it was formed 6
months ago. I would not say much about that now. I will
leave that until the relevant time. I am not trotting now.
When I stan to trot, I will deal with that.
Sir, we must see places like River Bay, Cove Bay,
Barclays Park, Farley Hill and all other areas in rural
Barbados that are playing important roles and are important
to the development of rural Barbados. We cannot afford to
continue to provide these services and not get our fair share
of the cake. It is no sense telling me that you are providing
me with Highway 2 or the Duncan O’Neal Highway. We
want to see some tenantry roads. We want to see a lot of
tenantry roads, not one or two. I want to see them go and
complete the programme left for them by the Democratic
Labour Party, the tenantry roads programme.
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Pardon me?
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Have we not built roads in
St. Lucy? I wonder if you know St. Lucy.
Aside.
Mr. D. St E. KELLMAN: I want to see a situation in
rural Barbados where my son or your son-in-law, Sir,
would not have to travel…
Asides.
Mr, B. M. TAUT: On a point of order, Sir. As you
know, I always try to get the facts. I do not really
understand. Am I to understand the Honourable Member to
be saying that his son is your son-in-law?
Mr. SPEAKER: I have a daughter. I do not know.
Mr. D. St E. KELLMAN: Right now there is no
provision for a subsidy for the Transport Board, Sir. If
there is no provision for a subsidy for the Transport Board,
I have no problem. If you are going to tell me that you are
going to put all of the necessary facilities and services in
the rural constituencies that they need not travel out of the
rural constituencies to Bridgetown or the urban area so that
it would not put pressure on the transportation system. Is
that what you plan to do, Sir? Am I to believe that the
people from St Philip North and St. Philip South would
have all the necessary facilities that they would not have to
rely on the Transport Board anymore? That is rural
Barbados too.
We on this side have no problem with subsidies to the
Transport Board. We have always financed the Transport
Board whether we did it at the end when there was a need
to or whether we did it up front
What I want to know is if $3 million is supposed to
do everything that is expected by the people in rural
Barbados?
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Rural Barbados is
important and the Honourable Member for Christ Church
South would understand that. That is why we will make
sure that - sometimes people from rural Barbados would
not understand, they would criticize it - we develop all the
necessary infrastructure in rural Barbados to make sure that
rural Barbados pays for whatever it wants.
It must be stated that a hospital is not important only
for rural Barbados but polyclinics are important. I want to
know if the Honourable Member for StAndrew is going to
sit back and ignore the fact that in our Manifesto on page
31 we had a polyclinic for St. Andrew. And if he is not
going to make noise about that polyclinic not coming to St.
Andrew. We would also like to know about the one for
Horse Hill, St. Joseph and the one for St. John because
when we speak about rural development these are things
we talk about. There is a myth in this country that

rural development has started 6 months ago. That is not
true. Rural development has always been part of us.

Mr. Speaker, rural development was so far advanced
that we would be believe that in the seventies the late Mr.
Barrow was talking about an airport for St. Lucy and he
was serious. It so happened that by 1976 the Government
changed and of course rural Barbados suffered for that. The
same plans we had for the St. Joseph Hospital to make sure
that the poor people of St. Lucy and other rural
constituencies, if there was a major accident that they
would have a hospital. 1995 came and things have changed
the hospital has gone again.
We would like to see a road linking Hope Road and
Bishops because when that road is linked you have a
situation where it provides a beautjful site for tourists and
Barbadians alike. You can see all over St. Lucy and even
some parts of «St. Peter.
Mr. SPEAKER: Please, do not start it up now.
Mr. D. St E. KELLMAN: It can be regarded as a
tourist attraction. We are not in Government now, Sir, so
we have to ask the Government to provide these things. We
know what we were planning to do and by Budget time,
Sir, I will provide my manifesto to the people of St. Lucy
to show them that we had sound plans for the people in the
rural constituencies.
We have enough evidence to prove, Sir, that
whenever there is change of Government in this country
and there is a change from DLP to BLP, rural Barbados
suffers for that. We do not think we should pay for that,
Sir. We are contributing enough to Barbados. And I am
going by the Honourable Member for St. Peter and I will
repeat it, if we are to attract tourism and cruise ship
tourism in St. Peter, we must have the infrastructure. I am
saying to the Honourable Member for St. Peter that he
must not allow his Minister to only come for a vote for $3
million but he should ask his Minister to come for a vote
for $15 million because it would also help the Member for
St. James North …

Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Pardon me. $15 million,
Sir, because there is enough evidence that with a $15
million investment in the North of Barbados that the
Government would get a better return than that.

Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: That is nothing. That is
my constituency. I have a right to speak about that. If you
do not want anything for St. James North tell me so now.
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: I know that. If the
Honourable Member for St. Joseph wants to say that the
Honourable Prime Minister has cut it from $15 million to
$3 million he must say that but I am not going to say that
because I know the Honourable Member for St Peter
would like the same $15 million to develop the whole of
St. Peter. Honourable Member for St Joseph if you are
saying that it is the Honourable Member for St. Peter that
cut the Budget, I would not know that, you would know
because you would be privy to that.
Sir, we want to see also a link of certain roads that
are also important for the development of rural Barbados.
Sir, once the necessary facilities are provided in rural
Barbados and the cruise ships come into Speightstown,
passengers would be able to do their shopping, go on
nature tours through St. Peter, St. Andrew, St. Lucy, St.
Joseph, St. Philip, even St. Thomas and if we had the St.
Joseph Hospital and they were sick they would be able to
go there and not have to compete with the patients at the
Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Since they do not have that
facility now, Sir, so I do not know how the Florida Cruise
Ship Association would look at this proposal by the Prime
Minister but I hope that it would be favourable because it
would help the people in the North of Barbados and the
other areas.
I have no problem in supporting a supplementary
vote, maybe later down in the year, whether it be $7
million of $12 million for rural development I want to
assure the Prime Minister that once he is doing anything
for rural Barbados that he will have my support and I
would say to him, all he has to do is to adopt the plans of
the Democratic Labour Party and he would have no
problem in finding support for his plans.
We heard a lot about vendors and I was rather
surprised sitting in this House of Assembly to hear that the
Barbados Labour Party has plans for vendors. I cannot
believe that this is the same party that nearly every evening
for the last year or two was criticising vending. I do not
believe it, Sir, but if they have now realised that vending
is important and it can help create jobs I have no problem.
There are times when we need to repent and if they are
repenting now, Sir, I am prepared to give way to them, Sir.
I would like to see them continue to allow the
vendors to have proper markets along the highway. They
have created those markets. All I would like to see them do
is to provide the necessary infrastructure. If they do that…
Hon. Miss B. A. MILLER: Mr. Speaker, Sir, on a
point of order. I would want to refer the Honour864
able Member for St. Lucy to page 9 of the Barbados
Labour Party Manifesto. It has a whole section dealing with
vendors and to remind the Honourable Member so that he
does not any longer mislead the House, that this Barbados
Labour Party had plans for vendors in the old Marshall
Hall Building on Hincks Street which was in our Manifesto
of 1986. Eight years later all we have at Marshall Hall,
Hincks Street is a burnt out shell. The red pencil was put
through that by the Democratic Labour Party.
Mr. SPEAKER: The Honourable Member has two
minutes.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: I want to thank the
Honourable Member for the City for reminding me that
they had plans of giving Marshall Hall to the vendors so I
hope they will make haste and construct the building down
at Marshall Hall and give it to the vendors because we will
be looking forward to that promise. Now I can afford to
tell the vendors in the urban areas that Marshall Hall
belongs to them.
Mr. SPEAKER: Honourable Members, keep it orderly
please.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: You see, Sir, when I look
under the Head, Rural Development, all I am seeing is
agriculture. I want to let the Government know that rural
development means more than agriculture. I cannot
understand how people can associate rural development
only with agriculture, Sir. Sir, even though I would like to
see the Honourable Minister do a lot more for the farmers
at Spring Hall, I would like to see him put in the necessary
irrigation for all the farmers at Spring Hall. It is not fair
that there are some farmers at Spring Hall with irrigation
and there are some new farmers at Spring Hall who are
still waiting to have irrigation in their plots. I am saying to
this House that I am looking forward for the Honourable
Members on that side coming to this House of Assembly,
for a larger vote for rural development and I will assure
this House that if they come with a larger vote and the
pronouncements are correct I will support them on that.

Thank you, Sir.