Tourism minister creates clean-up task force
(CNS): Government has repackaged the Beautification Committee into a new task force to focus on cleaning up the islands and taking littering seriously. The Cabinet recently approved the establishment of the Cayman Islands Beautification Task Force (CIBTF), which is made up of volunteers on sub-committees who will work in communities to remove derelict vehicles, educate residents on their responsibility for garbage and put an end to littering.
The force is being chaired by Theresa Lewis-Pitcairn under the direction of Heather Bodden MP (SAV). It will report to the Ministry of Tourism but will work closely with other government agencies, including the Department of Environmental Health, the Department of Public Lands and the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service.
The CIBTF moto is ‘Clean and Green – Cayman Islands’ and Bodden said it was a “personal passion” of hers to showcase the pristine beauty of the Cayman Islands. “As we continue to welcome back tourists to Cayman’s stunning natural scenery, I encourage everyone to take pride in your outdoor spaces, as this not only reflects our nation to incoming visitors but adds to the quality of life for residents,” she said.
Officials said the task force will also serve as a conduit for the public to report any issues relating to litter and illegal dumping throughout the three islands and will liaise with the relevant agencies to have the situation remedied.
“The increase in abandoned vehicles, messy properties and illegally dumped household items gives the impression that this type of behaviour is acceptable to residents,” Bodden said, stressing that this was not the case.
Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan said the ultimate aim is to change the attitudes and behaviour of the public to act responsibly in keeping the islands clean.
“The Beautification Task Force will operate on a strategic level to restore a sense of pride in our islands by amplifying community consciousness to a level that will reflect the uniqueness of our culture, heritage and people,” he said. “The CIBTF is also tasked with educating the public on the laws surrounding littering and illegal dumping and they will be reporting violators who break the law to the relevant authorities.”
In a message released for Earth Day, Bryan said the creation of the task force was to herald an islandwide cleanliness and accountability campaign.
“The task force is just one aspect of my vision to implement solutions to address the challenge of littering and illegal dumping in our islands,” he said. “As the minister for tourism, I am ever mindful that the natural beauty of our islands plays a major role in attracting tourists to our shores, and we take pride in showcasing our amazing attractions and pristine waters internationally. Keeping our landscape and seascapes free of debris is therefore integral to our status as a world class tourism destination and vital to our visitors’ ability to enjoy our unique plants and wildlife in their natural state.”
Alongside the chair, Theresa Lewis-Pitcairn, there will be ten task force members, who will serve as designated district leads and work with the volunteers. They are Deputy Chair Robert Bodden, Felisiana Ebanks, Nickeah Esteban, Omeria Gordon, Karen Hydes, Janet James, Edney McLean, Graham Rankine, Margely Reve and Romelya Welcome. There are also ex-offico members from the Department of Environmental Health, the Department of Commerce and Investment, the RCIPS and the tourism ministry.
See Bryan’s Earth Day message on CIGTV’s YouTube channel below:
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Category: Environmental Health, Health
Fix the damn dump
….with some foreigner in charge. We locals need to stand up now its full time
free money making solution:
enforce litering fines and fines on derelict properties/vehicles.
Will never happen in a third world culture. Only going to get worst. This is only one in a long list of moves to prove they are working and earning their pay. Again.
Start with banning single use plastics, people can’t throw them if they dont have them!
This is the best news in many years the island right now is a disgrace.the trash is out of control and a total eyesore for everyone ..I am not bothered who’s running the show wether it’s Kenneth Heather or Teresa it needed starting and it needs traction.
The clean up groups this weekend did a fantastic job the difference is already there to be seen
We are years behind on the recycling but we have to start somewhere.
Roads. Waters.
those triple dipping salaries.
Beaches.
Is this big task force getting paid? I see he said volunteers but we know how these things go. Eventually little big allowances start to creep in. Then the task force = 99% salaries and benefits and 1% action.
The Cayman Islands Beautification Task Force (CIBTF) is yet another Panton-PACTless Clown Car (PPLCC) bandaid patch on a broken system: Covering government failures by throwing a committee or “task force” at it is such a worn and much overused modus operandi in the Cayman Islands. This smacks of the same old Machiavellian politricks. They deflect addressing their failures by creating another level of bureaucracy; another set of meetings that government officials have to schedule, manage and attend, which takes away from time they could better spend directly addressing the respective issues. Not to mention funding an initiative whose purview is largely redundant. I should think better of a government who promised us that would be progressive in the way they handled things. So much for the “P” in “PACT”. The PPLCC’s hiding of Long Covid trashed the “T”, so now we are left with the Panton AC Clown Car. (The “A” and the “C” are certainly very questionable if not trashed as well.)
Based on the article, other than the public relations aspect of the CIBTF there is no purpose for the initiative, as the remainder of the issues fall under the purview of the Department of Environmental Health (DEH) and perhaps the DOE.
Directing complaints about trash, litter and the like through the CIBTF adds an additional and quite unnecessary layer to the process. Who not just employ a person in DEH to take the complaints directly and channel them to the person(s) responsible for taking action? Maybe Bernie can be seconded to do this since as punishment by the PPLCC he was given a lighter workload and he needs to be efficiently used as he is getting the same lavish pay for less work.
Putting the initiative under the Ministry of Tourism makes no sense. Let the DEH do what they are designed to do and let the Ministry of Tourism do what they are designed to do. The whole structure of this initiative sounds like something a person with reasoning deficiencies would come up with.
Touching on Heather Bodden’s quote about us continuing “…to welcome back tourists to Cayman’s stunning natural scenery”: C’mon! Let’s be honest about it. What we welcome most of the tourists to is a stark, eroded, over-developed concrete jungle called “Seven Mile Beach”–complete with stunning panoramic sea vistas littered with cruise ships.
In case their Human Resources professionals have not made the PPLCC aware of this, handling complaints from the public should be done by persons with experience and training for the job. The CIBTF should be further trained in exactly how the system works. If their purview includes educating the public, then they must also receive training in how to educate effectively.
Are there plans to train members of the CIBTF in all aspects of the tasks at hand? Or will they just be turned loose by the PPLCC with wishes of good luck?
How will complaints get to the members of the CIBTF? Will they have a dedicated phones and dedicated email? If word of mouth is the only way to lodge a complaint, the non-anonymous aspect will inhibit rather than enhance public input.
Why should the CIBTF receive complaints and then “liaise” with those who will deal with the issue? That is very inefficient.
An another thing…! Many people have lamented that they lodge complaints about illegal dumping or other related activities and nothing gets done. Seems to me that the system has a response problem. How is the CIBTF going to change this? Maybe give them the ability to fire lazy officials! THAT would go a long way towards changing things.
Bottom line: the CIBTF is yet another mindless and poorly conceived exercise by the PPLCC. But then again, if mindless and poorly conceived exercises were eliminated from the PPLCC repertoire, they would no repertoire.
get a hobby.
@9:25:
I have a great, socially useful, and very satisfying hobby: calling out the mindless foolishness of the Panton-PACTless Clown Car.
The raw materials for this hobby–dunderheaded ideas, general incompetence, and crafty politricks–are freely and amply supplied in a steady stream by the Clown Car. And they make participating in my hobby so very easy.
What’s your hobby?
Tourism minister creates clean up task force.
Awesome.
And this is for clean up within the ministry right?
Suggestion: apply the current garbage disposal requirements for multi-unit residential dwellings (apts/condos) to ALL of these establishments, regardless of when they were built. Any more than 3 rental units should utilise a skip NOT bins. This would go a long way in preventing trash escaping into roadways and neighbourhoods.
The problem with this is that the majority of apartments and condominiums lack both space and aceess for skips and garbage trucks.
Smaller 3 cubic ft. skips are now available so not much space is required. Some even have wheels. Space cannot be allowed as an excuse. Note that neighbouring properties can share as well.
If your “antique” car does not have seat belts do you think you can drive it around in contravention of the current law?
Ah I see Theresa “no principles, party in power” Pitcairn is leading the charge! Still trying to be relevant. That job could have gone to any number of our young environmental soldiers, instead we give it to a failed political candidate to boost her chances at election in three years.
Richard SIMMS DEH what’s going on you see something do something or you just don’t care.
BS BS and more BS.
Maybe…maybe they can accomplish in one year what plastic free cayman does in one month.
But probably not..
The island looks third world for a reason that can not be fixed up to look good.
“The increase in abandoned vehicles, messy properties and illegally dumped household items gives the impression that this type of behaviour is acceptable to residents,” Bodden said, stressing that this was not the case.
Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan said the ultimate aim is to change the attitudes and behaviour of the public to act responsibly in keeping the islands clean.
When read carefully it seems the government members here are not in sync with each other! Because “it is acceptable to too many residents / official persons” is precisely why there is a need to “change the attitudes”!
The messy trucks carting rubbish (much falling out along the way) and very nasty trash areas of many residents, along with the don’t care attitude of those tasked with ensuring cleanliness and enforcing littering laws, is in large part why this has become such an alarming problem!
When is the last time ANYONE has been charged with littering? I’m sure the number can be counted on one hand over the past 50 years!
I am encouraged some though by this initiative, as Heather Bodden is indeed one who does take this matter very seriously!
I probably should have said: I will endeavor to be optimistic here as Heather Bodden is known to take littering very seriously. I do hope that also translates to; the ability to make needed improvements throughout our islands.
She is all bark, no bite. I’ll share your optimism when we see arrests and successful prosecutions.
Perhaps Minister Bryan’s Clean-up Committee can start in GTC!
i hope it works this time! This initiative has started and stopped too many times to count. However I would add here that starting in pre- school through high school each and every child should have a class in saving and protecting the environment. There are still too many who really do not have any respect or pride for where they live. Obviously too many parents are not teaching their children so I suggest adding it to the curriculum in all the schools, I still see persons throwing thrash from their car windows. We have the laws and just as laws concerning safe driving are enforced, laws concerning taking care of the environment should also be enforced.
I smile when I hear phrases like “saving and protecting the environment”. Akin to “Save the Earth!”. I am not busting your chops, but just offering food for thought. A lot of well-meaning people speak as if the “environment” needs saving. Just maybe part of the problem is that we speak as if we need to save the Earth. Perhaps the issue would take on more urgency if we faced stark reality: it is we, not the planet or Environment that are in jeopardy. The Environment has always been fine and will be so long after mankind renders itself extinct from its own actions. The Earth and the Environment were ok when the Earth was a lifeless, molten mass. The Earth and the Environment were fine when multitudes of volcanoes spewed out ash and acrid gasses. The Earth and the Environment were copacetic during the Ice Age and simply splendid during warming cycles. They were ok during mass extinction events. The Earth and the Environment chugged wonderfully along for the aeons before the Environment could support life and humans came on the scene, and they will be peachy long after we are gone.
On a cosmic scale the Environment known as the Universe will not even miss the Earth when Sol goes supernova and renders this planet into a sooty ball. As a matter of fact planets being rendered into sooty balls is part of the grand Cosmic Cycle. It is how Nature and the Environment of the Universe work.
One sure thing we can know about the Environment is that over time it changes. But the Environment does not need saving or protection. What needs saving is humankind. We need saving from ourselves because we now have the power to effect very rapid anthropomorphic changes in the Earth’s environment. But the Environment does not care nor is it forgiving if we make the Earth into a toxic hell for humans. It will not give us a reprieve or time out until we can find a way to get to another planet. It simply incorporates what it is given to it and moves along.
No matter what, the Earth and the Environment will be ok, just not ok for humans. And that is our concern. We are the ones in need of protection…from ourselves.
Could Mr Bryan’s open invitation to Carnival to call here as often as they like be considered as integral to our status as a “world class” (must every politician use this ridiculous example of hyperbole) tourist destination?.
Amen hallelujah!! I’m so happy to hear this. There is literally trash, or derelict cars island wide. Going forward home owners or land owners should be held responsible for any trash or derelict cars on their property.
Many task forces turn into TALK forces!
Can you do something about the derelict vehicles that are allowed to use the roads. They are easy to spot, they have no licence plates, held together by cardboard, plastic and duct tape. Smhhh.
Today for the first time since arriving on island in the mid 90s I heard a car backfire.
Idiots also pay extra to have a device to make their utterly regular BMW, Audi, and (insert name of sedan here) go pop and bang, cos y’know, it’s cool innit, though it goes no faster.
What a powerful and incredibly talented task force we now have. Every one of them, up to the Job!
They finally found something for Heather to do
If they could just enforce the littering laws!
Or educate people not to throw their Wendy’s or KFC bags out the car window as they drive down the road.
Educate? You’ve got to be kidding? They don’t know?
Heather and her broom! Reminds me of a story that was in our primary reader about a woman called ” rain storm”who got stuck between the clouds and the ground riding her broom. How much we paying her to do this again.?
Heather who?
The developer on the government of sustainability’s bench.
The new Eugene she is. I even forgot about her. Heather should have been Heather Panton.
So, volunteers are meant to do the clean up with the task force gets paid to watch? Did I understand that correctly? Either way it should be policed with actual laws in place so shitholes that leave garbage all over their property and the roads in front are fined and forced to work as the volunteers to clean up depending on the mess they created in the first place. Punish the people who litter and tip trash do it instead of asking us who care to keep picking up after them.
Jobs for the boys.
The most cayman thing going – Cayman Islands Beautification Task Force (CIBTF). Low and behold they will have a logo, website, 10 board members and have some fancy looking uniforms and cars.
and embroidered face masks
while Premier is passionate to protect Earth’s climate
How about the stipend recipients be required to clean up our beaches and our country as long as they are getting paid. I mean, they might as well do some work that will benefit the tourism industry. Come to think of it, the able bodied recipients of public support should also be required to provide some sort of service to Cayman.
How about we enforce laws and fine litterers. The streets are a mess with beer bottles, water bottles, fast food packaging, rocks and concrete from aggregate and concrete trucks. Last weekend saw a pickup truck severely overloaded with garbage from a construction site which had dropped a large part of the load in the middle of Thomas Russel Way by the cricket pitch. The police had traffic stopped while the culprit returned to the scene to place the garbage back on the top of the teetering pile on the truck. The driver was allowed to continue on with more garbage flying out of the bed further down the road. If not ticketed should have at least been taken off the road until load was reduced. Aggregate trucks and concrete trucks doing the same. Cycling on the roads is even more perilous now. If the cars and trucks don’t get you the rocks, loose metal and spilled concrete will.
And wet marl / aggregate from dump trucks! In other locales marl is extracted and made to dry before transporting.
Can I chair the task force which will oversee the task force which will oversee all the task forces?
Finally. Certain areas in George Town are covered in rubbish. Consistently. Dog city is a prime example.
Include down behind Welly’s where you love to hang out
About time. Only 40 years behind every other first world country.
Can I chair the task force which will oversee all the task forces?