By Lamin Cham & Tabora Bojang
Brikama Area Council chairmanship candidate Seedy Ceesay of the National Peoples Party NPP has revealed his ambition to work with government to transform the council into a municipality, his campaign told The Standard yesterday.
“Mr Ceesay will work tirelessly with the central government to formulate policies and procedures to fasttrack and realise that dream,” a senior official of his campaign said.
The Ceesay Campaign said such a development would elevate the status and financial performance of the BAC, through partnership with other cities across the globe.
Meanwhile in his manifesto titled “Making West Coast Region great, for the people, by the people and with the people” shared with The Standard, Ceesay also dedicated a large portion to holistically address the long term acute lack of designated parking spaces and garages that cause massive traffic jams, transport constraints and general congestion in West Coast.
“The lack of garages is a major road hazard that undermines the safety of people and goods in our communities and my plan is to build garages across every critical center in the region and this will be captured in the regional development master plan.
Mr Ceesay then went ahead to give a detail break down of the plan to decongest and make freedom of movement of goods and services easy and less cumbersome in the entire region.
He disclosed that while the existing Brikama central garage will remain as the major one, many others will be built at strategic places.
“A central garage will be established at Brusubi Turn-Table, while a special one for local and tourism services will be located at Senegambia. To decongest the town center in Brikama, a big garage will be built around the Kabafita Forest Park to cater for vehicles coming from Farato and beyond, while another one, to be created at Brikama Jamisa, will accommodate vehicles from Gunjur, Sanyang and other Kombo South settlements.
“This plan will significantly reduce or even eliminate the movement of vans, trucks and gele-geles into the crowded inner towns and thereby ensuring safety and free movement,” he said.
In the same vein, Mr Ceesay, when elected, will work on building a garage somewhere between Brikama and Kembujeh to accommodate vehicles going to Kombo East, Foni and the rest of the provinces.
“For vehicles coming from Dimbaya and Darsilameh area, a minor garage will be created around Madina Sallandingto,” Seedy Ceesay said.
“Once they have a proper garage, none of these vehicles will be allowed to reach the town center in Brikama because all the new garages will be linked with smaller taxi cab system to be introduced to serve the town center,” Mr Ceesay said in his manifesto.
The NPP candidate said this method will ensure that the Brikama town center or market is completely free from congestion by all kind of vehicles moving in a tiny space.
For the rest of the region, Ceesay said he would implement similar car park projects. He said new garages will be created at the Farato – Jambur, Lamin to Mandinaring, Sukuta/Jabang Traffic Light Junction among others. “The Brufut Turn -Table garage will be the major intersection point to be linked with one to serve Brufut and the new market to be established there as well as vehicles to Madiana and Banyaka,” he said.
He said at the Tanji fishing center, a garage will be built alongside the new market while another will be created both in Tujereng and Sanyang for major commercial vehicles and local taxi services respectively. “The Gunjur garage will be enhanced whilst Kartong will get a new garage,” Ceesay outlined.
He also unveiled plans to address problems of environmental sanitation, health care, markets and street lightening, access to safe drinking water as well as construction of a fishing centre in Tanji.
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