Villages at Coverley Runs Out of Gas
Submitted by Anthony Davis
Rubis, Coverley
Confusion surrounds the Rubis Service Station in the Villages at Coverley and its presence in that housing community without Town and Country Planning approval to operate a gas station. More than a year after its construction the gas station is yet to be opened and investigations by Barbados TODAY have revealed that to date developers have not yet received permission to operate in the Christ Church community…Developer and managing director of Preconco Limited, Mark Maloney:”I don’t know anything about that
My, my, my, which came first? The chicken or the egg?
Did Town and Country Planning issue its edict before the Environmental Department stepped in or was it vice versa? I would like Mr. Mark Maloney to tell me how one can build a gas station without anyone noticing. Anyone travelling in that direction would have seen the building activity, so I would like to know why Town and Country Planning did not put a stop to the activity there.
If someone started building a house without prior permission from Town and Country Planning I am sure that it would not get very far, so an explanation is required from that agency as to why Mr. Maloney was allowed to build a gas station and not one person said/noticed anything. The gas station was built more than a year ago, so why was that correspondence which was sent on December 16, 2014 by Town and Country Planning not sent before?
Two questions must be answered:
1) Are the houses to be “relocated” chattel houses?
2) Where should Mr. Maloney relocate them to?
I don’t know if numbers 378, 379 and 380 are chattel houses. If they are not how can they be relocated? Should Preconco take them apart block by block? Should they look for somewhere to relocate them and put them there? What about the owners of those houses? Don’t they have any say in this very dodgy matter?
It beats me why no one from either the Environmental Department or Town and Country Planning saw it fit to say anything to the builders of the gas station while the building was going on. This can only be put down to the ineptitude that is rife in this Government and some of its agencies. Every day there is something which has not been done in order to facilitate the smooth running of something or the other in this country.
Where does the buck stop?
At Town and Country Planning or the Environmental Department?
How long will it take to relocate those houses?
What if the owners do not want to be relocated?
What is wrong with these Government projects that there is always some controversy about them?
Is it because the houses are not for the rich and famous?
Only recently photos of the development at Parish land in St. Philip showed the state of the properties overgrown with all kinds of weed, thus preventing people from occupying them. Now Minister Kellman is blaming Minister Lowe for the delay.
When will the blame game end?
Surely no one can blame Preconco for carrying out the building if no one says word one.
I wait with baited breath for the outcome of this farce!
Barbados Underground 
The houses are prefab constructed therefore it should not be difficult to disassemble. With the number of houses unoccupied one has to ask the question if the 23 houses condemned are occupied, we should not assume. When Coverley was under construction were they not visits to the site by T&P?
LikeLike
If a poor fellow from Eden Lodge built an extension to his house to use as a shop, without planning permission, the Chief Town Planner would get the bulldozers to knock it down. Why is this gas station any different?
My guess would be that the Eden Lodge fellow did not contribute any funds to any political campaign. I am sure the authorities will move heaven and earth, not only three houses, to accommodate these lawbreakers.
HE WHO PAYS THE PIPER CALLS THE TUNE.
LikeLiked by 2 people
@ Caswell
…are you saying that our government would move the earth to please…?
LikeLike
The strategic issue we need to grapple with concerning the Villages at Coverley project is where does the development go from here. It is obvious Barbadians have no appetite to buy the hundreds of unfinished houses. Something has to give.
LikeLike
Something has to give.
+++++++++++++++
you mean ‘SomeONE has to give’ …and that someone is brass bowl bajan taxpayers.
what else will happen?
…Government will compensate the project managers for their ‘expenses’ and then sell off the houses at a loss to party faithfuls.
Why not?
The basic mission has already been accomplished:
…they claim that they ‘built nuff houses’ – (who cares about the cost..)
…plenty crumbs fell off the table
…campaigns were financed
…some select people were properly satisfied
The taxpayers or NIS can now pick up the pieces….
LikeLike
BU understands there are polls being carried out in St. Michael and Christ Church seats by certain parties. If anyone can share info please do.
LikeLike
Bush Tea January 18, 2015 at 10:22 AM #
“The basic mission has already been accomplished: …they claim that they ‘built nuff houses’ – (who cares about the cost..) …plenty crumbs fell off the table…campaigns were financed…some select people were properly satisfied
The taxpayers or NIS can now pick up the pieces….”
My thoughts exactly, Bushie.
LikeLike
Mr Reudon Eversley’s opening statement on today’s Starcom’s Getting Down To Brasstacks on the intellectual and political bankruptcy and irrelevance of the DLP and BLP in this country, is almost brilliant and spectacular.
Our concern though is his belief that the DLP and BLP can be reformed to meet the political demands of many of the people of this country.
The fact is that the DLP and the BLP have over the years had chances to seriously reform their ways of doing things, ideologically, politically and organizationally.
They have been showing that serious change is beyond them.
Therefore the absolute and permanent removal of both of the two jackolantern factions from the political and parliamentary landscape of this country
LikeLike
The Prime Minister is responsible for “Town Planning”. The road past rubis at Coverly leads to him.
However let us find out if Maloney was allowed to build a Gas station without the appropriate approvals and if he contravened any laws.
Somebody could be fired.
On BU I have come to expect both “the Purely political” and “The facts”.
LikeLike
Here is why I tread cautiously when it comes to “Town Planning”. The average person has no reason to read and understand the act but there was a time when I needed to know….
Read permitted development.
http://www.townplanning.gov.bb/content.aspx?c=42
LikeLike
@Hants
TP regulations mean nothing in Barbados when a pen stroke by a politician makes it disappear.
LikeLike
If Barbadians have no appetite for Coverley what abut Six Roads?
LikeLike
Maybe it was outline planning permission for the gas station i.e. yes the proposal is fine in principal but further documents/conditions must be met (removal/layout of houses?).
LikeLike
@enuff
You comment does not mesh with Maloney’s response to the press.
LikeLike
I never believe Maloney.
LikeLike
The developers at Coverley , like every one else in this country ,were allowed to do as their like. If the gas station had no permission from Town and Country Planning, then it should be demolished , full stop. We have seen the authorities moving in on small time stall holders, and the like ,and smashing their places of business. But this is Barbados . Steal a tin of sardines and straight to Dodds you go, carry away a Quarter of a million dollars and its business as usual. In addition to the gas station I wonder if permission was ever granted by T&CP, or whoever, to erect that crazy flower garden which is jutting out into the hard shoulder/ emergency lane of the ABC highway , near the Coverley entrance /exit.
Perhaps our politicians need to commandeer and slightly modify C.O Williams motto to .. We move heaven and the earth to please certain people in this society.
LikeLike
To this day, I can never understand who in their right minds could sit down and come up with the plan to build so many match boxes on top of each other and hoped to sell them at such rediculous prices. This is like an upscale Bonnetts, Wotton, Gall Hill, Deacons or Haynesville.
This was a bone head plan from which the developers and their enablers hoped to cash in big time. They totally mis-read the Barbadian psyche. Little did they know that Barbadians know when they are being taken for a ride. If they were hoping to entrap the the returning Barbadians, the were sadly mistaken as these returning Barbadians want the biggest houses. Most of them want land to plant gardens and grow vegetables. So these fowl coops would have been a no no for most of them as there is not much land around each house as they are so close to each other. So there went most of the sales!
Was there not some talk last year before the elections when the polls were showing a defeat on the cards for the DLP………that the people behind this project were putting pressure on the government to use NIS funds to pay them for the unsold houses?
The developer during the year was pitching that the houses were being sold. I took a drive through there and was “amazed” at how many were unsold. The whole area to the right as you drive in is closed off as all of them are unfinished and unsold.
When we were growing up, my mother always told us not to watch other people or copy what we see others doing. Somebody went to Florida and copied the Villages development and now they see how follow pattern ends up! What a thing!
LikeLike
Colonel Buggy January 18, 2015 at 5:11 PM #
The developers at Coverley , like every one else in this country ,were allowed to do as their like. …………… In addition to the gas station I wonder if permission was ever granted by T&CP, or whoever, to erect that crazy flower garden which is jutting out into the hard shoulder/ emergency lane of the ABC highway , near the Coverley entrance /exit………………………….
You are so right Colonel.
Every day I pass that section of the highway, I get angry at this planter sticking out in the highway. I really wonder if there was permission given for this violation of traffic regulations.
But you know who and who were behind this project, so why worry? No one has been killed so far, so why worry? Eh?
LikeLike
I don’t understand why the developers didn’t do what every other sensible developer does – build Coverley out in phases. This allows them to minimise cash spend, monitor the rate of sales and build accordingly. It also means they can change the type of units built so they built what sells. Madness.
LikeLike
@Prodigal Son
It is not fair to suggest the planter is jutting into the highway. The planter is located where the carriageway was located before the construction of the feeder road required to exit Coverley.However it does not change the fact it requires getting use to.
LikeLike
Prodigal Son January 18, 2015 at 5:22 PM #
And have you seen the ones going up at Lower Greys. Is this what we took up good premier agricultural land to do. A few weeks a go I put a photo of one of these developments on Flickr and was asked if it was an army barracks. Like you, one night I came from the northern direction and was expecting to see Coverley lit up like christmas tree. There were only about 10 houses lit up.
The way things are going in this country, one day Coverley may come in handy as a refugee /concentration camp/ almshouse estate.
LikeLike
If the houses are to be removed , this means the gas station will remain. Why not move the gas station which came last?
LikeLike
Colonel Buggy
Yes Colonel, I passed there last week and was shocked to see the match boxes going up. Who is behind this project? They are using the same slabs like Coverley. People will be stupid to buy any of them.
LikeLike
Sorry David but I think the planter is a menace!
LikeLike
I don’t understand the logistics of putting it there as if there are not enough petrol stations within a 5 mile radius of the place.People want political/social reform and keep doing the same foolishness.The residences at Pile Bay Spring Garden come to mind of the potential danger of this nonsense.Years ago there was a huge fire on President Kennedy Drive at Esso causing grave concern to the residents nearby.Who cares anyways , for the policy makers , “suh long it aint in at me”.
LikeLike
” If the gas station had no permission from Town and Country Planning, then it should be demolished , full stop. We have seen the authorities moving in on small time stall holders, and the like ,and smashing their places of business. But this is Barbados .”
The town planning department first seeks to regularise; demolition results when the infractions are so grave there is no choice but to demolish.
@Suckabubby
I agree, no damn gas station, chicken barn, bank or supermarket needed.
LikeLike
Coverley was to be an all inclusive mini town based on the Villages in Florida……………………. and a mini version of Pickerings!
LikeLike
David
1. Some innocent Bajan(s) or visitor(s) will be killed at some stage in the future at the Coverley entrance. I hope I am wrong but fear that I will be right. This is a crazy design but is the result of GOB ‘trying’ any and every way to accommodate the ‘big boys’.
How the hell can a gas station with thousands of gallons of highly flammable fuel be sited in the midst of a dense housing development?
How can a developer build a whole gas station without permission?
LikeLike
Colonel Buggy January 18, 2015 at 5:11 PM # s
” We have seen the authorities moving in on small time stall holders, and the like and smashing their places of business. But this is Barbados .”………………..
We have seen what Town and Country Planning did to man at the top of Oistins Hill. They claimed that the man built the wall without permission. The man claimed he only replaced the existing wall……. only he went up higher.
In no time the wall was bulldozed!
LikeLike
Building a gas station in self contained communities is nothing new Norst.
LikeLike
Examine how the Town Planning kept Bynoe of B’s waiting. Barbados has become a real banana republic under this government. Daily some odd and embarrassing event is made public.
LikeLike
@ Norst the Invader
“How can a developer build a whole gas station without permission”?
………………………………………………..
When the minister is an immature person whose stings can be pulled in any direction by monied men!
LikeLike
A BU blog posted before Coverley houses were built.
https://barbadosunderground.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/leader-of-the-opposition-calls-for-the-resignation-of-housing-minister-michael-lashley/comment-page-1/
LikeLike
@Prodigal Son January 18, 2015 at 8:34 PM “Coverley was to be an all inclusive mini town based on the Villages in Florida”
Why not look at Bajan villages, see what works well, and replicate those things.
LikeLike
Norst the Invader January 18, 2015 at 8:59 PM #
David
1. Some innocent Bajan(s) or visitor(s) will be killed at some stage in the future at the Coverley entrance. I hope I am wrong but fear that I will be right. This is a crazy design but is the result of GOB ‘trying’ any and every way to accommodate the ‘big boys’
……………………………………………………………………………..
Probably not a Bajan. We are the luckiest road users/ abusers on the planet. How else could one describe an encounter I had at 7 pm tonight, when I met a 5/6 year old boy, riding a bicycle on the wrong side of the road in dimly lit Brittons Hill, with no lightson the bike , and with and expression on his face that this is the right thing to do.
Getting back to the Coverley-ABC junction. To add insult to real injury, the Ministry of Transport and Works has placed a road sign at the turnoff to Coverley Developement
This road sign pictured below is an International Road Sign (Blue) which should be familiar to many of our visitors. But what they are not familiar with is the dangerous way which this sign is intended to be used locally.
In international language this sign is saying ” Pass either side of this sign to reach the same destination,”
So a visitor traveling in the direction of the airport direction,moreso at night, may attempt to follow the instructions of the sign and take that illusive extreme left lane and end up in the protruding flower garden or in the ditch. (and I have seen a driver doing such at the similarly signed Warners junction. A Side Road sign would have suffice.
Some drivers coming out of Coverley, instead of continuing towards the airport roundabout,and now doing a U-Turn at the protruding highway flower garden.
This junction is just as bad as the Jambuster.
LikeLike
Town and country planning rejected the proposal to build a gas station there yet after a while they still went ahead and build it without planning permission that’s the reason why it’s still close…..
LikeLike
David
I am not arguing that gas stations are not built in self-contained communities, I am questing how one could be built in such a dense housing development as the Coverley Village.
I would think that if they was an explosion of the flammable fuel in Coverley Village gas station, dozens of houses and the occupants would be severely affected.
ALSO I WOULD EXPECT RUBIS TO DISTANCE ITSELF FROM HAVING ITS SIGNAGE ON A GAS STATION WITHOUT PLANNING PERMISSION.
LikeLike
@ Norst the Invader January 19, 2015 at 7:12 AM
“ALSO I WOULD EXPECT RUBIS TO DISTANCE ITSELF FROM HAVING ITS SIGNAGE ON A GAS STATION WITHOUT PLANNING PERMISSION”
Excellent observation!
Now that this breach of the law is in the public domain we shall see how long RUBIS will allow this PR damage to continue.
LikeLike
@Norst
Agree with gou.
LikeLike
David, Norst raises some valid points. Maybe BU should consider dragging RUBIS into this blog formally/officially. This is how you stop people from believing they are above the law and the rules of a civil society. They must be made to feel/suffer the consequences of their actions, not just the mouthing’s of those who disapprove.
LikeLike
Alternatively, give the BU family the RUBIS link where they can email the company showing our outrage of RUBIS being involved in a gas station without planning permission.
LikeLike
Grace Fuller, good point. Here is the link to Rubis’ Contact Page:
http://www.rubis-caribbean.com/contact-us/
LikeLike
Ha…..Gary Morse croaked, what now. He certainly got away from the investigation in the US, but who says the investigation is dead, maybe Fruendel Stuart and his ministers of strength in character can elucidate.
LikeLike
@Colonel Buggy January 18, 2015 at 11:16 PM #
“… a 5/6 year old boy, riding a bicycle on the wrong side of the road in dimly lit Brittons Hill, with no lightson the bike , and with and expression on his face that this is the right thing to do.”
u said i , he is 5/6 year old child. it is your responsibility not his to look out for him. at that very young innocent age, he is all about play
LikeLike
Pinkie January 19, 2015 at 3:13 PM #
u said i , he is 5/6 year old child. it is your responsibility not his to look out for him. at that very young innocent age, he is all about play
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..
And what about the responsibility of his parents, who gave him a bike, in ensuring that he is properly supervised,and not left on his own at 7 pm?
Is it any wonder that daily we see reference in the court section of the newspapers to 25 and 30 year old YOUTHS. Are we going to wait until that kids becomes a ZR driver to lecture him on the rights and wrongs of the law?
LikeLiked by 1 person
back on June 4, 2014 I told David of BU the follow:
The question should be asked, did they have building permission from Town and Country planning to build the town square at Coverley? if the answer is Yes, then why has the Rubis gas station not opened? that story is a smoking gun all by itself.
The above has not change. See we get lost on the small things but we will learn.
LikeLike
@David
You cant be serious? The town square and the amenities were all advertised as part of the great master plan for Coverley. I still believe there was outline permission. Now if ALL planning applications with supporting documents were readily available on the TPD website, we would not be here guessing. Stupse.
LikeLike
@Norst the Invader January 19, 2015 at 7:12 AM…”I would think that if they was an explosion of the flammable fuel in Coverley Village gas station, dozens of houses and the occupants would be severely affected.”
Do you mean like 3rd degree burns to 40% of the body or do you mean like dead?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I would also want to know why the Ministry of Public Works was used to build the entrance at Coverley Village at an expense of Bds$700,000.00 to the Treasury.
LikeLike
@ Colonel Buggy
I sympathize with you Colonel.
Here you are speaking of the abdication of duties by a parent, causing no 6/7 Year ole should be pun an unlighted bicycle at that hour
Befo dem tek way de ole man license causing I can’t see at night, I was driving coming down the ABC Highway near Sandy lane and was overtaking a taxi man (a nudder ole man, WITH A HAT.
No you might not know dis but when you old, and you driving at night that is one ting, but when you is a taxi man, AND, you got on a hat, well that in ten times worse!!!
Well I had was to overtake the slow poke and when I get half way past he I but up pun a 40 year old chile pun a child small bicycle wobbling, cause de bicycle too small fuh de retarded development candidate.
Well de ole man is a bit uh bvhkvnt when de time come, which is most uh de time.
I press my foot pun de Austin Cambridge gas pedal and when de “Silver Shadow” pas he scvunt, I see every teets in he mout and smell he perspiration and I tink I even get a whiff of shi*e when I pass he by a female rabbit hair
I value human life that values itself and Buggy, if it is you safety over theirs, kill dem ass cause if I pun de jury it is a case of misfortune
Do not swerve from dogs, cats and children whose parents need de neutering
LikeLike
Colonel and Buggy
Wunna aggressive old men need to keep off the road when the nights come.
LikeLike
@ Simple Simon
It is not that de ole man too aggressive it is being pragmatic
Do an Internet search to see the number of fatal car accidents caused by a cockroach running cross a lady driver lap!
When de accident done dem critters does jump out de car and de accident police does say death by disadventure!!!
Imagine Colonel Buggy having to swerve to avoid that 6/7 year old waste foop? dat Pinkie admonishing him about, swerving, turning over he car and deading?
BU gine jes say the BU family is sorry to announce the passing of notable long time commentator Colonel Buggy who blah, blah blah blah ……he will be sorely missed.
Even AC may come and say some kind words and for what a 6/7 year old riding bout pun de main road pun a bicycle wid no light causing dem muddah aftah she cyan keep she legs shut, cyan shut she house door and keep she chile inside, note dat I ent say nuffin bout de fadah dat you had someting to say earlier bout
We are making excuses for the inexcusable and blaming everyone else for a parent’s responsibility.
Colonel Buggy ent get pun dat woman and breed she but, when de night come, it is he responsibility to see where she offspring lurking and pimping like he fadah who out pun de block
Sometimes when Lawson and de nex fellow start talking bout we I does begrudgingly got to say dat he and de rest uh dem right doah
LikeLike
I had a similar experience to Colonel Buggy, only with a hard back idiot for man. I was leaving the NIS building and going along that road which is one way…….right in a corner coming right to my car is a man on a “piece of a bicycle”.
I had to swerve suddenly to avoid crushing him. The man wrong, wrong but he cursed me and my mother in the worse way. I drove off and left the idiot…………said not a word in English to him. That’s how you deal with idiots!
LikeLike
As a person who has completed many Defensive Driving courses, and has been trained to work and recognised things in the dark, I was not so much concerned with myself becoming involved in an accident with this little kid,or the other big hard back men I encounter every night on bicycles and motor cycles, but for those drivers who are less alert and slower to react,as well as those who drive much bigger vehicles,where the view of the road could be partially restricted . But isn’t this becoming the mantra of most Barbadians ? Blame the innocent and concerned party…….. Michael Carrion the guilty.
Perhaps, like the first two fellows on their way to Jerusalem from Jerico , when one comes across these senseless acts, its best to swerve and continue on the other side. Let the other idiot behind deal with it.
LikeLike