Hanover Chinese developer bows to injunction threat

Western Bureau:

It took the threat of a court injunction to get a Chinese developer who had defied several stop orders from the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC) to finally comply with an order to cease construction on a building he is erecting in Lucea, the parish capital.

The building, which is being constructed on Main Street in Lucea opposite the Texaco Service Station, a few metres away from the municipal building, has been a symbol of defiance since the developer was served with the first stop order.

The Chinese developer and the developers of the RIU Port Marley Limited in Negril were both served with cease and desist orders in early October with regard to breaches identified by representatives of the HMC on their respective projects. The developer, of the RIU Port Marley obeyed the orders and corrected their deviations, but the Chinese developer chose to disregard the HMC order and continued to build.

"We observed that the building by the Chinese developer, which is in the middle of the town, was still being worked on despite the stop order, so we went there, met with the developer and he was warned, in no uncertain terms, that if he did not stop the building immediately, we would be moving forward with our legal options, one of which is to get a court injunction to stop the building," said Craig Oates, manager of the compliance department at the HMC.

CONTRARY TO PLAN

According to Oates, the Chinese developer has been building contrary to the approved plans for his building, and as such, he was instructed to get a structural report and new architectural drawings for the building, which he was told to submit to the HMC for viewing and consideration for approval.

Oates pointed out that during a visit he made with a team of HMC officers on Friday, November 2, 2018, it was noticed that the work on the Chinese developer's building had finally stopped, ending the need to pursue legal option.

"We have issued hundreds of 'cease work' notices over the last year and a half, but, by and large, what we find is that the persons who are in fear of the law will comply, but there are some persons who feel that they are bigger than the law or that they have connections who usually refuse to comply and ignore until the legal option is applied," Oates noted.

According to the compliance manager, his department has now adopted a new strategy of issuing summonses to persons constructing buildings illegally and taking those persons to court for the various breaches identified.

Pointing out that the construction of buildings illegally is quite widespread across the parish, Oates insisted that his department will leave no stone unturned in their quest to correct the irregularity in the parish.