On a formal Monday swearing-in ceremony, Lucy Belle-Matthew took office as the new mayor of Dominica’s capital city, Roseau, laying out a clear, action-focused policy agenda centered on three long-standing urban challenges: inadequate sanitation, unregulated private property management, and disorderly street vending.
Belle-Matthew earned her mandate after a competitive March 2026 city council election, where she ran as the representative for Ward 4. She secured a solid victory, polling 408 votes to defeat her challenger Sherman Boston, who garnered 267 votes.
In her first official inaugural address to the city and its residents, the new mayor opened with pressing property regulation issues, emphasizing that owners of vacant lots and crumbling, dilapidated buildings must bring their holdings into compliance with existing city council rules. “We are appealing to the owners of such properties to take immediate action to comply with Council’s regulation,” Belle-Matthew stated. To strengthen the city’s ability to enforce these rules, she revealed the council plans to propose revisions to local property tax legislation, adding that the council’s regulatory authority must be acknowledged and upheld across the municipality. “There cannot be full and effective representation without your commitment to pay your taxes and fulfilling your obligation to Council,” she added.
Belle-Matthew also took a moment to praise the national Government of Dominica for its ongoing investments in upgrading municipal housing stock, noting that the national initiative has already delivered tangible improvements to living standards for hundreds of local families. She called on private property owners and all community members to partner with the city council to advance local sanitation improvement projects, framing public cleanliness as a shared responsibility rather than solely a government task.
Shifting focus to urban public space management, the mayor called out unregulated street vending as a growing public safety concern, particularly in Roseau’s densely populated city center, where vendors have occupied sidewalks and public roadways. “Vending in some areas of the city has become a major hazard due to the congestion and disorderly vending practices,” she explained. Rejecting heavy-handed crackdowns that would threaten vendors’ livelihoods, Belle-Matthew outlined a balanced approach: the city will restructure vending locations to restore public access to sidewalks and streets, but will offer existing vendors the option to relocate to available, properly zoned space at the Roseau Market, where they can continue operating their businesses without disruption. “This situation cannot be allowed to continue. We will seek to address this issue in an orderly manner,” she said. “If you are relocated to the Roseau market, we want you to make a good living by applying your trade. But we have a statutory duty which we must execute.”