The Editor,
The Anguillian

Dear Sir:

PLANNING COMMITTEE CONTRIBUTES
TO EYESORES

I have a serious problem every time I drive on the roads of Anguilla and I think it should be redressed. It is the empty wooden squares from which the Planning Committee recently extracted the various private advertising materials. Now I fully understand the Committee’s point in radio announcements that a number of the signs were erected without planning permission. I am also aware that the owners of the signs may have been requested either to take them down or to apply for permission to have them remain in place.

Two wrongs certainly do not make a right in the case where the Planning Committee eventually removed the actual signs (text and artwork) and simply left the wooden squares that held the advertising material standing empty. In my opinion it gives a very disgusting look and has created many eyesores around the island. My take is that if the road side signs and billboards were offensive in that permission was not applied for, the entire structures should have been taken down.
The empty squares present an ugly spectacle to visitors and residents alike. They give the impression that a hurricane blew out the advertising centrepieces and no one had the time or interest to replace them. I think the advertising signs were both colourful and helpful, providing some character and useful information for passersby. It is my opinion that rather than broadcasting announcements on the air, that the Planning Committee should have paid personal visits to the owners of the signs and try to coerce them into getting planning permission (after the fact). Those signs cost the owners a lot of money and to simply take them away was not really the right thing to do.
Evan Paul (An observer in Anguilla)

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