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by pltm
(PLTM) - The residents of District Four feel that they are lacking proper representation, and as such, Mrs. Luce Hodge-Smith says she decided to run for the District Four seat in the House of Assembly (HoA).
During a Meet and Greet with constituents last night, January 18, she told residents, “Representation is 24/7. It’s also being there, being visible.”
She further stressed, “Representation is very important, very important in terms of being visible, and not just when it’s election time and you see someone come around every four years and start to clean up and try to convince you to vote for them.”
When asked by BVI Platinum News if these statements came as a result of constituents’ dissatisfaction with the current representation by Hon. Mark Vanterpool, she shared that some residents have not seen Hon. Vanterpool in close to four years.
Hon. Vanterpool has occupied the Fourth District seat from 1999 to 2007. He lost the election in 2007, but later regained his seat in the 2011 election, and has since been serving as Minister of Communications and Works.
“One of the things when I started to come out, started to approach people about my decision to contest the next General Election, some of them said to me, you know we haven’t seen our representative in four years,” she stated.
Mrs Hodge-Smith continued, “They may have seen him after the hurricane; after the hurricane, a couple of them may have seen him. Some of them did say they haven’t seen him in four years.”
In order to improve the relations with residents and to improve their representation, she said she will put systems in place to open the lines of communication if she is elected.
“You want to be able to have meetings with the constituents,” she emphasised.
“When you’re taking a bill to the House of Assembly, you really need to come to the people and share that information with them. Don’t let them hear it for the first time, don’t let them learn about it for the first time when it gets to the House,” she posited, adding, “It’s affecting them, it goes to the House and then it’s passed.”
Speaking to some areas that she will be tackling, she mentioned infrastructural and economic development.
“Infrastructure, in addition to schools; we’re talking about the flooding issue that’s plaguing us in the Road Town District. I have been talking to a Structural Engineer who has been giving us some great ideas on how we can work towards fixing those issues, she divulged.
Addressing the needs of representation for businesses, she said that she would be “working with the businesses on Main Street, businesses in the Road Town area, so we can re-establish the Road Town Business Association, the Main Street Business Association….not only that, helping our own people to help themselves, to help them sustain themselves.”
