Regional News of Saturday, 31 January 2015

Source: GNA

Indiscipline activities thwarting street-naming system

Some group of persons have resorted to destroying the sign post bearing two of the street names that the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly (CCMA) has mounted.

For the second time in about a month, the sign post bearing the street names of John Evans Mills Avenue and the King Aggrey Street, located opposite the Prudential Bank at Chapel Square had been destroyed.

The sign post, which is in front of a warehouse, had endured constant mishandling by these unscrupulous people who often offloaded cartons of beverages, gallons of oil and other provisions from heavy trucks into the warehouse.

These people, on their own accord, manipulated and shifted the street name plates to give way to the trucks upon reversing to offload into the warehouse.

The situation had caused a bend on the sign post, and the King Aggrey Street plate removed, with the John Evans Mills Avenue plate turned towards the King Aggrey Street direction.

City authorities appeared unconcerned or probably were overwhelmed by these indisciplined activities gradually taking over the Metropolis.

These activities, if unchecked by city authorities, would undoubtedly result in the Assembly dipping deep into its already tight revenue to re-fix or repair them.

The Ghana News Agency (GNA) first observed this anomaly somewhere in December, 2014, where these same street names were removed completely from their sign post and alerted one the Public Relations Office of the CCMA.

Some days later, the street name plates were re-fixed, only for them to be destroyed again in the early part of January, 2015.

The GNA again alerted the PR office again, which promised to remind the Street and Property Naming Committee of the CCMA to resolve the issue.

But some weeks into giving that assurance, the sign post still stood bent, with the King Aggrey Street name plate completely taken off and the John Evans Mills Avenue, which runs from the Barclays Bank junction through Kotokuraba, rather pointing contrary towards the King Aggrey Street, from Anaafo to the Wesley Methodist Cathedral at Chapel Square.

Upon further interrogation, the Public Relations Officer told the GNA that the Committee was conferring with the Metropolitan Engineer and the Assembly’s Quantity Surveyor to fix the problem.

On what measures was being put in place to deter people from such crude behavior in the Metropolis, the PRO said he had personally warned the people at the said warehouse about their behavior, adding that the Assembly was going to strictly enforce its by-laws to inject sanity in the Metropolis.

When asked what the Assembly was doing to educate and sensitize residents to familiarize themselves with the new street names the PRO, Mr. Addo said that the CCMA was collaborating with the Information Services Department and radio stations in the Metropolis to educate people to that effect.

The Cape Coast Metropolis, in recent times was witnessing barrage of business activities along the streets and at every corner of the city, causing chaos in both vehicular and human traffic after the demolition of the Kotokuraba market to pave the way for the construction of a modern facility.