Our Plans

The Owen Roberts International Airport is the main gateway to the Cayman Islands and this Government has finally delivered the modernisation for which our country was crying out.

The changes we have made to our airport are to carry us through for the next few decades as tourism numbers continue to soar with visitors looking for all the magic that these three jewels in the Caribbean Sea – our beloved Cayman Islands – have to offer.

Although no sooner had the Prince of Wales opened our new airport terminal than we are turning our attention to the next phase of the airport master plan – runway and other improvements that enhance efficiency and safety.

A Dart-led consortium has been chosen as the preferred bidder for the proposed Integrated Solid Waste Management System (ISWMS) to be implemented in the Cayman Islands.

ISWMS will replace the current landfill in George Town, which is nearing the end of its life.

The new system is expected to process and divert up to 95 per cent of waste from being landfilled in the future. It is to be operated as a public-private partnership, with the successful consortium awarded the contract on a “design, build, finance, operate and maintain” basis.

The Department of Environmental Health will continue to provide waste management collection services for ISWMS.

Ground-breaking is expected this summer for a phased implementation of the new waste management system, with the aim to have it fully operational by 2021.

ISWMS will include the closure, capping and remediation of the current landfills on Grand Cayman and the Sister Islands, with recycling, composting and a waste-to-energy approach at the heart of the new operations.

Plans for a cluster of cottages to be developed as a residential mental health facility have been approved by the Central Planning Authority.

Built across 15 acres in East End, the facility will include nine cottages, each capable of housing six patients and a central building for administration, dining and activities. It will also feature an orchard and vegetable garden.

The planning approval is a major step forward for the $10-million project which has been in the pipeline for several years. It will provide residential care in the Cayman Islands for mental health patients for the first time. Currently, mental health patients in need of long-term care are sent overseas, usually to Jamaica.