When the iconic Carter Rey Boulevard or Valley Main Road, extending from just outside the Ronald Webster Park, to the Airport Roundabout, is completed, will the nearby Food Strip remain at its present site or be relocated – and, if so, for how long?
It is a question being asked not only by a number of persons who frequent the multi-shack food and drinks area but by the operators themselves. The relocation and improvement of the Food Strip have been a long-time discussion issue by Government officials and members of the public.
An issue has been the unsightly appearance of The Strip – notwithstanding its convenience at a most accessible site. Commentators have been arguing that, because of its prime location, just off the Carter Rey Boulevard, and down the road to the Landsome Bowl Cultural Centre, that there is a need for remodelling and upgrading.
One of the questions is where will the Food Strip eventually be relocated? The agricultural farmland, just to the north, is owned by the Anguilla Social Security Board. But there has been some talk about moving the Food Strip to the western area of the land or even, perhaps, to further north, across from the old Valley Road, to another area of agricultural farmland. Just how possible this will be is to be seen. The fact is that the Social Security Board has plans for the development of the whole area in the immediate vicinity of the Food Strip, but no time factor has been determined.
Another school of thought regarding the relocation of the Food Strip is the former partly-used hurricane-distressed compound of Campus A of the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School. The suggestion is that steps towards this usage could be taken when the new and extensive campus off The Quarter Main Road is completed.
The argument is that the school’s old campus can be rebuilt, by Government, in such a way that there are multi-food huts for many applicants desirous of establishing their culinary services there under an Inland Revenue Department rental arrangement. The area is partly fenced and is particularly so expansive that it could easily accommodate the Food Strip.
It cannot be certain which alternative site the Government will finally decide on; and whether it would either undertake to actually build the food sites; or require persons to do so as well as pay for the spaces.
Whatever is the final decision, it is worth taking soon as the Carter Rey Boulevard is expected to be completed in the coming months with the issuing of separate contracts.
