The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

THE applicants leading the judicial review challenge of the government’s decision to eliminate shanty towns do not have a building permit and are in violation of the Building Regulations Act, according to the affidavit of Building Controls Officer in the Ministry of Public Works Craig Delancy.

Mr Delancy said his department had no record of a permit application by Elisnor and Lumane Nonord of Cowpen Road despite claims made in supporting affidavits that the pair applied for a permit to rebuild their home after it was destroyed by fire.

“A search of the records of the division revealed no evidence of Elisnor and Lumane Nonord having made an application for a permit in 2012 or at any other time going forward,” his 244-page affidavit read.

He said the Nonords have not produced the building plan or copy of the permit and, as such, are in violation of the act.

Mr Delancy said it could not be determined whether their home was code-worthy as it had not been inspected.

Lumane Nonord is among 177 residents, alongside non-profit group Respect Our Homes Limited (ROHL), who are fighting the government’s “eradication policy”.

Mr Delancy’s affidavit and another from Labour Minister Dion Foulkes, who chairs the Shanty Town Action Task Force (SATF), were submitted on May 2 in response to claims made by applicants.

For his part, Mr Delancy stated his disagreement with the facts set out in the applicants’ affidavits and said he did not feel as though it gave a fair impression of the circumstances or the living conditions faced by residents.

He further outlines the cases of several applicants, who claim to be long-term residents but there are no records proving there were ever any approved building permits, inspections, or occupancy certificates.

Mr Delancy noted the case of Veronica Francois, who claimed to have lived at a building in Bedrock West with her family since 1990. Ms Francois did not provide evidence of the building’s conveyance to her name, according to Mr Delancy, however, an examination of two successive voter’s cards indicate her addresses in 2006 and 2011 were in the Blue Hill Road area in the Bain and Grants Town Constituency.

Mr Delancy said he believed her residency claim to be a “total fabrication”.

In defence that his decisions were unfettered, Mr Delancy recounted several shanty town demolition exercises undertaken separately during his tenure, as well as instances where private home owners in other areas had been issued warnings.

He pointed to the demolition of five buildings in an area off Joe Farrington Road, and 17 buildings on a private property in Seabreeze Lane in 2013, and a joint exercise with DEHS in 2015 that demolished 60 illegally constructed buildings on five acres of land in Gamble Heights off Baillou Hill Road South.

“I execute my duties within the framework of the BRA and I do not discriminate,” Mr Delancy said.

“I direct that inspections be carried out as a matter of course when a complaint is made to me by the public.”

As for the government’s Shanty Town Project, Mr Delancy said he was directed by the Ministry of Works to perform his duties on the SATF, but noted it was made clear that he was to exercise his powers independently.

Mr Delancy led a 20-member technical team to conduct assessments over a series of weekends from April 15 to May 5, 2018.

His report points to a total of “approximately 450-500 structures” located in shanty towns across New Providence.

Those shanty towns were located on: Montgomery Avenue, 58 structures; Allen Drive, 27; Faith Avenue North/Bellot Road and Olga Ave, 15; Cowpen Road East/ East of Golden Isles Road, 23; Gold Isles Road/All Saints Way, 84; Lazaretto Road, 29; Hamster Road/Butler’s Way, 47; Cowpen Road/West of Faith Avenue, 49; Bacardi Road North/Bedrock Ct, 38; Bacardi Road South/Honeydew Ct, 22; and Kool Air Subdivision, 67.

The highest percentage of compliance with the building code was in Bacardi Road North/Bedrock Ct with sixty percent or 23 of 38 structures. In the Hamster Road/Butler’s Way community, none of the 47 structures were code-worthy.

A written notice was published in the newspaper for residents to come in to the department to verify they held building permits or occupancy certificates within 14 days.

Mr Delancy said since the notice was posted the department received 31 cases, where people either received an occupancy certificate, had a building permit, or submitted an application.

Contravention notices were placed on July 9, 2018 and gave owners 28 days to pull down or remove buildings. In two cases, occupancy certificates were provided and it was determined those structures would not be demolished.

In 29 other cases, some of which produced building permits, it was determined structures were still in contravention because there were no occupancy certificates and it was found the structures were not build according to the plans submitted for the permit.

“From my observation and that of the building inspectors, many buildings were constructed too close together, and in some areas, too close to the road,” Mr Delancy’s affidavit read.

“Buildings laid out in such a clustered manner are a serious risk to all of the surrounding buildings and is a major fire hazard.

It continued: “I found the vast majority of buildings did not have proper sanitary disposal systems, that is to say, the use of septic tanks and soak away or sewer connections. Very few buildings had potable water supplied to them, while the majority had well-water supplied which were situated in very close proximity to ‘their’ version of a septic tank which in many instances were merely a pipe from the buildings into a hole in the ground.”