Submitted by Anthony Davis
Landowners who ignore Government’s warnings to debush their vacant lots will be named, shamed, and even forced to pay a fine if they want to ever develop or sell that property. “Tired of people not responding to appeals to clear their land, Minister of the Environment and Drainage, Dr. Denis Lowe, said that his ministry was ready to take action. He said he had received a report about 25 undeveloped lots in the Southern Heights, Christ Church, community – just one example of several cases of delinquency all across the island – Source: Page 3 of “Barbados Today”, dated 28 November, 2013
I would suggest that the Ministry of the Environment and Drainage remove the log in its own eye before looking at the mope in in the eyes of private landowners. A prime example of Government’s delinquency is the building from which the BTA has moved. It is overrun with grass, and the trees are hanging over the sidewalk. That is very unsightly, especially that that area is a very high-traffic one.
Will the Minister of Housing be “named and shamed and be forced to pay a fine” if he does not “move with haste to clean up that ministry’s lots”?
Does the Minister think that when rats and vermin see a particular lot they recognize it as belonging to the Ministry of Housing, and tell themselves that they cannot go on there?
How about the mosquitoes?
“A rose by any other name is still a rose,” Mr. Minister. You call it a levy, but I call it another tax with which you intend burdening the already heavily taxed populace of this country. Are you planning on confiscating people’s property? This is also Blackmail! There is a skip next to the bus terminal in Oistins which is not removed before 6 a.m. This stinks and sometimes the truck does not get there until later. By this time the egrets, other birds, fowls, and cats have gone into it, and opened the bags, and the contents and some of the bags are strewn around it. This odour is very sickening, and the sight of it is very abominable. There are many people – including tourists who we would like to see return to Barbados – who go to Miami Beach for their early morning dips, and the first thing that greets them is the stench of that skip!On top of that, the skip is not removed on Saturdays and Sundays, and this makes it worse. The sight and smell of that skip are more obnoxious then!
Does this not come under your purview, Mr. Minister?
How about making sure that that skip is moved earlier so that people going for their swim, or those who have to commute through Oistins do not have that unsightly, foul-smelling skip to deal with first thing in the morning?
Do you not want to put a levy on the Ministry of Health for allowing this to continue day in, day out?
People in glass houses should not throw stones. You, as Minister of the Environment, should clean up your act first. We keep hearing about anti-pollution laws that will be coming, but it seems that they are coming on a slow boat from China.
On Wednesday 27 November, 2013, I was at a bus stop in Oistins when a ZR pulled off. It laid down such a smoke screen it would have made the BDF jealous!
A lady said: “nuff to kill yuh!”
She may have said it in jest but the particulates in diesel exhaust can give us lung cancer, because they are just as deadly as those which coal miners inhale, and from which many of them contract lung cancer!
This is also in your portfolio Mr. Minister!
Stop talking the talk, and start walking the walk!
There is nothing wrong with making people clean up their lots but the Government should set an example!
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