Clarendon residents updated on Vernamfield development project

Residents of New Yarmouth, Vernamfield and surrounding communities in Clarendon were given an update on the Government’s planned development for the area, at a community meeting on Wednesday.

The meeting was held in Gimme-me-Bit, and was addressed by Shernette Sampson, a representative of the New Yarmouth Housing Development Project.

She told the residents that the National Works Agency and the National Housing Trust would be executing a project at the end of January, to rehabilitate damaged roads and drains of the New Yarmouth Housing Development Project, and to hand them over to the Clarendon Municipal Corporation.

Sampson said the work should be completed in three months.

Also addressing the group was Lt Col Oscar Derby, who spoke about the Vernamfield Development Project.

He told the residents that a project of the magnitude of the Vernamfield Development could not be planned and executed overnight, and that substantial roadwork had to be done and they are still in the planning phase.

“The more time you spend in the planning phase, the shorter the implementation phase will be, so we are going to do a thorough and proper planning before we start putting in infrastructure work,” Lt Derby said.

“We are putting out an invitation to the global community for the project, and in a few months, when those proposals come in, we will evaluate, make a selection and have a proposal for the work to be done, and move along,” Lt Derby said.

Questions regarding the future of the ownership of existing land and houses in the path of the runway for the aerodrome were asked, and the owners were given the reassurance that they would not be evicted from their properties.