Monday, November 8 marks the sixty-first world-wide celebration of World Town Planning Day (WTPD). This special day recognizes the contribution of urban and regional planning in helping to create healthy and vibrant communities and cities. WTPD is, currently, celebrated in some thirty countries on four continents as a way to promote awareness and support for spatial planning and proper development.

NEPA will commemorate World Town Planning Day, this year, under the theme: ‘Planning Our Cities for Climate Change’. The event will be marked by a two-day celebration, beginning with a Church Service at the Boulevard Baptist Church, 2, Washington Boulevard in St. Andrew on Sunday, November 7, 2010. The church service will start at 9:00 a.m.

On WTPD, Monday, November 8, NEPA, in collaboration with the St Thomas Parish Council, will host an exhibition at the Rudolph Elder Park in Morant Bay, St. Thomas. The exhibition will open at 10:30 a.m. Exhibitors include: the Parish Council, the Social Development Commission (SDC), and the National Works Agency (NWA). The aim of the exhibition is to inform stakeholders, especially those in St. Thomas, about climate change, its effects and the need for proper development planning.

At the World Town Planning Day exhibition, NEPA will also provide information to the public and stakeholders on the preparation of the Draft St Thomas Development Order for which land use surveys have been completed for some of the urban centres in the parish. These include: Morant Bay, Yallahs, Llandewy, Cedar Valley, Seaforth, Bath, Port Morant and Golden Grove/ Duckenfield/ Dalvey.

Additionally, the celebration will be used to highlight the National Spatial Plan which will provide a framework for national spatial development. NEPA and the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) will prepare the plan, with partial funding from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). The St. Thomas Parish Council will focus on the Local Sustainable Development Planning process and the role of the Parish Council in the planning process.


Two Outside Broadcasts (OBs) will also be aired on POWER 106 FM during the celebrations. The first will be broadcast from the Boulevard Baptist Church, on Sunday, November 7, starting at 7:30 a.m. It will end at 12:30 in the afternoon. The second OB takes place at the Rudolph Elder Park in St. Thomas, on World Town Planning Day and is scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m. Members of the public are invited to attend and participate.