By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
THREE months after Chief Justice Ian Winder ordered the demolition of two shanty town structures built in contravention of a previous court injunction, a senior Ministry of Works official confirmed yesterday that those buildings have yet to be removed.
Building control officer Craig Delancey confirmed to The Tribune yesterday that the structures remain.
“We are going to look into that as we are dealing with some matters,” he said.
His comment came after Works and Utilities Minister Alfred Sears told reporters his ministry undertook several measures to deal with the structures, though he did not reveal what was done or the status of the buildings.
Mr Delancey said the matter was with the Office of the Attorney General. However, Attorney General Ryan Pinder referred this newspaper to Minister Sears.
In May, Chief Justice Ian Winder ordered the demolition of shanty town structures belonging to just two people in The Bahamas.
The Office of the Attorney General wanted the court to order the demolition of more than 260 structures in New Providence and Abaco that were built despite an injunction prohibiting such construction.
The OAG initiated the action after Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson lifted her injunction earlier this year, ruling that the Minnis administration’s shanty town eradication policies were lawful.
However, the chief justice found that people, save two, were not properly notified of that injunction and could not be penalized for the breach.
The two structures belonged to Rose St Fleur and Aviole Francois-Burrows and were to be removed in 45 days.
He permitted the government to remove them at the expense of the women if they failed to comply.
It is unclear why the government has not as yet demolished the structures.
Comments
Sickened 8 months, 3 weeks ago
What matters are they dealing with? Bribery? As in looking for one from the tenants? . All that work to get to this stage and you sit back and do nothing? Do you not hear the outcry from the public?
birdiestrachan 8 months, 3 weeks ago
I will not be surprised if more structures are being built,
ThisIsOurs 8 months, 3 weeks ago
Completely unrelated to shanty town issue. But I hear this narrative that persons speaking out about known issues at BPL must have some hidden agenda because Warsilla couldnt have been dumb enough to install engines at an unsuitable location
My immediate thought was the persons pushing this line of reasoning cant have lived here for more than a day and do not realize that in this country politics overrides common sense, good governance and sometimes the law.
Here is an extract from a February 2020 BPL/Warsilla Tribune story
BPL race to fix new plant issue: Minister orders firm it must resolve cooling problem with engines
Bahamas Power & Light is racing against time to have its new $95m electricity plant ready to meet peak summer demand after plans for its cooling system literally hit the rocks.
Tribune Business can reveal that the state-owned utility’s scheme to cool the 132 mega watts of newly-installed generation capacity by digging four 800-foot deep wells at Clifton Pier is in danger of running aground because the area’s rock structures have proven far more difficult to penetrate than first thought.
BPL has so far managed to reach just over 50 percent of the target depth on two of the four wells and, with summer’s peak demand just three-and-a-half months away, it has ordered an alternative radiator system as a back-up in case the original strategy fails.
Several drill bits have already been broken in efforts to reach the required well depth, this newspaper has confirmed, with sources suggesting that only two of the seven Wartsila-supplied engines which comprise BPL’s new generation capacity are currently online and being used amid the wait for a cooling solution.
*Tribune Business also understands that BPL management was ADVISED AGAINST the well cooling solution by Wartsila, which URGED the state-owned utility to instead purchase a closed radiator system, but executives decided to press ahead DESPITE the supplier’s RECOMMENDATION. The drilling woes, though, have finally forced them to alter course.
And, besides the challenges in penetrating the rock, this newspaper was also told that decades of oil spills and other BPL-related pollution at Clifton Pier means that the water pulled up by the wells to-date us unusable because it contains multiple forms of waste and harmful chemicals.
Desmond Bannister, minister of works, confirmed....
ThisIsOurs 8 months, 3 weeks ago
The issue clearly isnt what Warsilla is dumb enough to do, but what an administration under electorate pressure will order to be done despite all good evidence to the contrary.
I for one believe they would install 95m dollar engines on a foundation they knew had issues on a hope and a prayer that identified risks would never come to fruition. 2020 was a campaign year
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