This information came out of a public meeting two weeks ago at Manor Lodge, St Michael, to examine the Draft Noise Abatement Green Paper.

Notes of a recent consultation, circulated by president of the Society For A Quieter Barbados (SQB), Carl Moore, said Minister of the Environment Elizabeth Thompson-McDowald gave this time frame while addressing concerned Barbadians.

"It's going to take about nine months," Moore quoted the minister as saying.

At the end of a discussion led by senior personnel of the Environmental Protection Department, the minister, who sat among the audience, took the microphone and explained the lengthy process in the drafting and general preparation of legislation before its enactment.

"She regretted the poor response from several stakeholders who had been asked for reaction and comment on the Green Paper circulated last September, lamenting that of the 35 entities approached, to date, only seven (including the SQB) had bothered to offer written submissions.

"She promised that the process would start immediately. 'We cannot wait indefinitely', she warned, and she hoped the matter would be given priority when it reaches the drafting department in the Attorney-General's office."

Moore added that Thompson-McDowald assured the audience that she and her colleagues in Government were taking the matter of noise pollution very seriously.

Issues raised at the consultation included:

The effect of noise on schoolchildren, with special reference to their homes and their travel to school on public service vehicles;

Vendors blasting loud music on street corners;

Civil society being threatened by noise but no one complains;

Calls for strict law enforcement against those who tampered with mufflers to make them emit rather than suppress noise;

Churches that make too loud a joyful noise;

Building materials that contribute to noise; Effects of noise on the elderly;

The changing society in which more people were working at night and sleeping in the day;

Dogs that barked incessantly; and

Late-night racing on highways.