Dear Editor – I wish to join all Solomon Islanders who have embraced the Mayor’s announcement that the properties in the stretch of land between hot-bread and NPF head-offices will be demolished and improved.
Well done Mayor and your team.
This is a wonderful announcement and like Jackson Ray, I want to extend to you and your councillors my commendations for taking this excellent decision.
You are visionary and deserve to be Mayor of Honiara.
Like Ray I think the area targeted should be expanded to include all the properties from ITA building including COM headquarters.
All these properties need to be pulled down and replaced with new well designed buildings.
By doing that the whole CBD will look modern and attractive and we can all be proud of our capital city.
It would also be helpful if NPF and SPOL were to join in the effort and seek to relocate SPOL to another area so that non-hazardous and beautiful development can be allowed to happen in that spot of land.
The same can be said to SIPA- please move quickly and develop your vacant land.
Build an attractive head-office or commercial center over there and avoid using it as a container park.
Everyone can now take the opportunity to exploit the good decision that the HCC has taken and work together to improve our capital city.
Let’s learn from our past mistakes and avoid building match boxes of the likes that are littering kukum.
I suggest that the Mayor directs that HCC buys good plans from overseases and force the proprietors on whose land the buildings at Point Cruz are in to buy those plans at cost so that they will build buildings that are attractive and meets the standards set by HCC.
Otherwise if we left them to the developers to choose their own designs, the improvements that are being sought will not happen and Honiara will remain an ugly capital city like what we are seeing at Kukum and China town.
The developers have opted for cheap designs and the buildings are unshapely and unattractive to say the least.
So please Mayor, do not stop there. Go ahead and take necessary steps to fulfil your dreams for improving Honiara.
COM church headquarters I’m sure can start the ball rolling.
They are a responsible corporate citizen and should take the initiative without being forced to improve its buildings and set an example for the type of standard that must be adhered to by others who own buildings in the vicinity.
While on the subject can I suggest that designers known to HCC who are responsible for designing the buildings at China Town and Kukum should no longer be allowed to practice as they are a shame to our nation and the architectural profession.
It seems to me they are just after quick bucks.
Anyway, let me end by saying once again how delighted I am as a citizen to hear the Mayor convey the decision that HCC has taken and I’m looking forward to the next steps.
Maybe one of the next steps Mayor is for the HCC to start modernizing its own Head offices.
It is also another sore eye and I am sure it will be a shining example to others if that building was modernized before demanding others to do so.
I’m sure it is also a health hazard and perhaps the other developers that you are targeting are waiting for you make a start.
But otherwise the decision by the HCC is a commendable one.
Peter Forau
Port Vila
