BELIZE CITY, Mon. Nov. 15, 2021 — Last week, the Belize City Council officially began the renaming of 8 streets and 2 roundabouts. This is in line with the PUP City Council’s 2018 manifesto promise to bring about a rebirth in the old capital. Albert Vaughn told local media that these new names are geared toward a transformation of the Belize City narrative through a replacement of colonial names with street names that pay homage to revered Belizeans.

The changes, while just set into motion this month, were approved through two resolutions by the Belize CITCO in June of 2020.

Resolution No. 36 of 2020 states that a working committee made up of Councillors made the recommendation to change the names of these public spaces to that of outstanding Belizeans “who have made a significant contribution to their respective communities and their country.”

The name changes are as follows: Regent Street will now be Dr. Dame Minita Gordon Drive; Market Square will be City Hall Square; Regent Street West will be Lindy Rogers Street; Cork Street will be Sir Alexander Hunter Street; the Pallotti Overpass will now be Dr. Manuel Esquivel Overpass; Sweet Avenue will be Bertie Ellis Avenue; Hutson Street will be William Fonseca Street; Partridge Street will be Amandala Drive; Gaol Lane will be Sister Caritas Lawrence Lane; the Mahogany Street Roundabout will be Eva Middleton Roundabout, and the Hands Roundabout will be Therese Feliz Roundabout.
These changes are gazetted and are expected to soon be seen across the city.

The name change of Regent Street is being seen as the most notable, since that thoroughfare has had that name for almost 200 years. Before being named Regent Street, it was named Front Street, while the equally famous Albert Street was named Back Street. The name change to Dr. Dame Minita Gordon Drive is the third rechristening of that street. The House of Culture, formally the Government House, is among the colonial structures that are housed on that Street.

Partridge Street, the home of this newspaper, will be notably changed to Amandala Drive.
A question in the public is whether the proper consultation was carried out by the Belize City Council before the final decision was made on these major name changes. While the resolution states that the recommendation came from the working committee of Councilors, it made no mention of whether or not any form of public consultation was carried out.

Some companies are protesting the name changes because, according to these businesses, their address is a part of their corporate identity, and a change in those names could bring about adverse effects on their brand and their public relations.

We reached out to the Council to ask whether any public consultation was carried out and the Councilor responsible for Traffic, Albert Vaughn shared,” “As previously mentioned, we were, unfortunately, unable to provide extensive consultations because while we were getting ready to put all the elements in place to rename the streets, covid came and threw off our scheduling for public consultations. We did however follow the necessary protocol in terms of gazetting the names changed. And they were gazetted for three consecutive weeks before taking effect. This is why in a previous interview I urged businesses to start obtaining and reading the gazette to keep informed about government business. We also made the announcements earlier on via our social media outlets but we do concede with those residents who have mentioned that more consultations would have prevented some of the concerns we are hearing now.”