City West behind PM but some dissatisfied

In spite of a list of unfulfilled promises three years into his first term, Prime Minister Gaston Browne’s constituents are still behind him and feel that the last three years were for the most part, economically progressive.
That was the verdict of the majority of those residents of Point, Villa and Dredge Bay who spoke to OBSERVER media yesterday afternoon amidst the sounds of construction on the first 48 of Browne’s 500 homes.
A pensioner at a bus stop in Villa said, “Young people are working and I’m happy for them. A lot of young people are off the street.”
Her only complaint was that Browne – her Member of Parliament (MP) – should take more time to visit the elderly. She admitted that crime remained an issue in her area but argued “he cannot be blamed for that” as it is not him who “tells them to go and rob and kill people”.
A vendor outside a school near to Dredge Bay declared, “Mr Brown is doing a good job,” and on the subject of employment, said, “We cannot expect government to employ everybody.”
A man running errands who stopped to speak briefly only said, “Gaston is doing good and I don’t believe [Wilmoth] Daniel can beat him. He’s here to stay.”
When it came to employment, the man said there were “plenty jobs and plenty work” and charged that those who remained without work “are those who sit down on the corner and beg politicians for handouts”.
Next week, Browne’s Antigua & Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) will celebrate three years in office since its landslide election victory on June 12, 2014. Despite the landmark much of what was proposed in its 2014 manifesto has not been achieved.
One issue that has plagued the Gaston Browne administration is the pace of hotel and leisure investments materialising into construction and ultimately into viable room stock or real estate.
Projects such as Half Moon Bay by Reply Resort, the Sunwing development at Deep Bay, the Yida International mixed leisure-industrial zone, the Paradise Found project and the Gravenor Virdee projects in Barbuda and others are yet to start.
 
(More in today’s Daily Observer)