D7 needs 'cleaning up'- Perline R. Scatliffe-Leonard
Former Director of the Water and Sewerage Department (W&SD) Perline R. Scatliffe-Leonard has publicly declared she is contesting the Seventh District and that one of her top priorities, if she wins at the 2023 polls, is a thorough clean up of the district.
“Clean up, clean up the district,” said Scatliffe-Leonard during a press conference to announce her candidacy yesterday, February 8, 2023.
'I am very passionate about our BVI'
After some 33 years in the civil service, Mrs Scatliffe-Leonard retired as Director of W&SD last month, fuelling speculation she may be gearing up to contest the 2023 elections.
Over the past months, commentator Claude O. Skelton-Cline had included Scatliffe-Leonard as one of the females in the Virgin Islands who can be considered as leadership material.
"We have been for a number of years now trying to get Perline on the scene that I am about to place myself on. I am very passionate about our BVI. I am very passionate about nation-building. My passion is big so there is no doubt that what I intend to do is something that I know God is leading me to," Scatliffe-Leonard said.
Describing herself as being very spiritual and that she prayed about her decision to get into politics, Scatliffe-Leonard said her "spirit feels calm” about it.
Mrs Perline R. Scatliffe-Leonard said if
she is successful at the 2023 polls one of her top priorities will be a
thorough clean-up of the Seventh District.
'I walked this district for years bare feet'
Asked what would be one of the first things she would do if elected, Scatliffe-Leonard said she would clean up the district.
“I grew up in the Seventh District and I walked this district for years bare feet. I can’t do so anymore, our district needs cleaning up.”
According to the political candidate, tourists are brought into the district on a regular, “and the condition of our district is not the best that it needs to be,” she stressed.
“We do have portraits of our leaders, we want to make sure that we tidy them up, we need to tidy them up, reframe them and keep it so.”
Scatliffe-Leonard also pointed out that the surroundings of garbage bins also need special attention.
“We need to make sure that our garbage bins are kept clean… there are things we can do to keep that situation at bay, so we want to clean up the district, that is head on.”
She insisted that the community should not have to rely on the government for some level of clean-up to take place. “PP (private Partnership), that’s where that comes in."
Mrs Scatliffe-Leonard is yet to announce a date for her first public meeting; however, she urged the Seventh District constituents to prepare for the fact that she will be visiting them.
The incumbent Representative for the Seventh District is Premier and Minister of Finance Dr the Honourable Natalio D. Wheatley (R7).
