HMC concerned about buildings going up without approvals

WESTERN BUREAU:

Concerns are high within the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC), as development is on the uptick across the parish, but several of the buildings, commercial and residential, are being constructed without the necessary approvals.

Mayor of Lucea, and chairman of the Hanover Municipal, Sheridan Samuels, brought the issue to the fore, while making the mayor’s announcements at the January monthly meeting of the corporation.

“The Hanover Municipal Corporation is very concerned about several commercial and residential developments that have been going up in the parish without the requisite approvals. Serious actions will be taken against developers who continue to build in defiance of Stop Notices served by the HMC,” Samuels stated.

“The very low number of development applications that the corporation receives monthly is just an indication of the gravity of the problem,” he continued.

The corporation received some eight applications for approval in November, 10 in December,and two in January.

Councillor for the Hopewell division, and leader of the minority group in the HMC, Devon Brown, expressed his disappointment.

“This is saying that Hanover is developing in a negative direction, because we as a corporation are supposed to supervise all buildings being constructed within the parish, and when I traverse the entire parish the number of buildings I see being erected, only to come here in December to see eight plans, and starting the new year with two plans. This is something that we need to pay significant attention to,” he stated.

Brown emphasised the impact of the loss in revenue to the corporation from fees which would have been charged for the approval of the building plans. He noted that it could be one of the reasons the corporation was not able to implement a dengue eradication programme in collaboration with the Hanover Health Department.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the HMC, David Gardner, tried to justify the small number of plans being received by the corporation saying that there could be more plans with other agencies awaiting approval by those offices before being sent to the HMC.

However, Brown dismissed the explanation, insisting that the number of plans coming before the corporation appeared to be consistently low.

In an interview with The Gleaner following the meeting, Samuels cautioned people doing construction of buildings within the parish, to follow the regulations or they will be prosecuted. He noted that several notices have been served by the enforcement team of the HMC, but developers appear to be disregarding the notices.

“I know that several notices have been served, so the next step is to get these matters in court,” he stated.

He said that the Roads and Works, Commercial Services and the Planning departments are responsible for engaging the developers in the next stage of enforcement.

“We do not want it to reach the stage where we have to demolish these structures, so don’t build it if you know that there are risk in doing so, when you get a notice just come to us and discuss your regularisation,” Samuels advised.

He mentioned the different building requirements and standards that have to be maintained in the construction of building processes, which aim to guarantee the safety of everyone.