Mayor wants squatters off Lucea coastline

Western Bureau:

The squatters who have been illegally constructing houses along the coastline in Lucea, Hanover, will not get a chance to become entrenched as the town’s mayor, Councillor Sheridan Samuels, has begun taking steps to have them removed as early as possible.

In lashing out against the squatters at the recent monthly meeting of the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC), of which he serves as chairman, Samuels described the unauthorised development which is taking place in proximity to the Lucea Municipal Car Park, as both illegal and unhealthy.

In calling on the Hanover Health Department (HHD) to investigate the situation, Samuels asked Dr Kausal Singh, the medical officer of health for Hanover, to investigate the situation, especially as it relates to health breaches, with a view of ensuring that the requisite action is taken to have them removed.

IMPROPER WASTE DISPOSAL

Dr Singh, I want you to pay close attention to this. We have been talking about it, we have been having some serious issues with persons capturing lands, and I am talking about in the town centre itself,” said Samuels. “Persons think that they can go and just build on the council’s property. It is happening over by the bus park there (across the road), where we have at least three individuals that actually build houses on the shoreline.”

The mayor also pointed out that, based on the information he has received, there are no sanitary conveniences for the new structures and as such, the occupants of the houses are disposing of their waste in plastic bags along the coastline.

“We were cleaning along the shoreline just the other day and the persons who were working there came upon a lot of ‘ lada bags’ (plastic bags) with that thing (faeces) inside of them,” explained Samuels.

OVERCROWDING

Apart from the illegality as it relates to the construction of the houses, the mayor said he was particularly concerned about the number of persons occupying the houses, which makes the health considerations even more concerning.

“In one of the houses that they build on the shoreline, right in the commercial area, you have at least six persons sleeping in one space around there. I want your department to pay them a visit,” Samuels told Dr Singh.

The medical officer of health said that he would assign personnel from the health department to investigate the matter and take the necessary action. However, he also suggested that the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the National Environment and Planning Agency should also be notified of the situation, as there might be other possible breaches taking place in the area.