Recently there was a Town Hall meeting at St Leonard’s Church about what traffic restrictions to expect during the Barbados leg of the series, and that opened as many questions as they sought to answer!

Present were Desmond Sabir and Cheryl Bennett-Inniss of MPT/Ministry of Public Transport & Works; Inspector Hugh Blades of the RBPF/Royal B’dos Police Force as well as Terry Mayers, Corporate Communications & Marketing Manager for the LOC/Local Organising Committee of CWC 2007 (yeah, quite a mouthful) to fill in businesses and residents on what is demanded, uh, expected from them or else!

This did not meet too well with some residents – Betty Culpepper is a regular churchgoer and is a member of the choir and wanted to know how she can enter St Leonard’s on the days of matches playing? Cheryl Bennett-Inniss relented in her “10 to 4 curfew” as she too is a churchgoer and recommended the popular Dale Carnegie grad assistant to get a Vehicular Access Pass/VAP from the LOC.

Then there was George Alleyne who is a bailiff that lives on Pickwick Gap – in his view, residents have been ignored for their input and this met with a thunderous wave of applause, he also stated that he has to prepare documents and see clients who visit him constantly at his residence (one wag suggested he buy a laptop), but Inspector Hugh Blades of the RBPF suggested he acquire a VAP quickly…

However, most of the time, Cheryl Bennett-Inniss of MPT told the crowd to rearrange their schedule to 10 until 4:30 or move after 6:30, she repeatedly asked for the ppl present to “give” yet she did not say what was being given in return – despite admitting they were one month behind in all traffic preparations!

Between March 5th until April 28th at Kensington Oval and surrounding environs, you can expect almost 50-thousand ppl if you go by what the organisers say – there are three zones, here’s what you can expect…

RED ZONE: This area can be entered by spectators only on foot, the only motorised access is just for players, ICC officials, security – you can’t even think of entering in a Digicel t-shirt with a Coke in your hand and a Carib beer case in the other paw – my man, you will have two choices? Go home or dump it in a box, and kiss it goodbye! The restriction is what can fit into a 24×12 box, and anything that does not fit or has a logo not complying with the official sponsorship must be abandoned!

BLUE ZONE: Limited vehicular access – no parking on the streets, one way traffic from Kensington New road to Fontabelle and onto Baxter’s Road; Traffic is restricted along 4th Ave Pickwick, 10th Ave New Orleans, parts of Beckles Ave to Kensington New Rd, up to the vicinity of H. Jason Jones. More vigilance for “ambush” marketing (for God’s sake don’t let them know you have a Digi mobile, gasp)!

ORANGE ZONE: Mainly ppl with tickets are allowed in this area – only BMW?s, um, authorised event vehicles allowed here… This mostly from junction of PKD/President Kennedy Drive and Westbury Road towards Spring Gdn H’way (westwards) and southerly to customer car park of H. Jason Jones…