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Minister of Environment and National Beautification, Trevor Prescod (centre), updating the media yesterday morning. Looking on are Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, Dr. Romel Springer (left); and Acting Minister of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, Lucille Moe.

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A portion of the land expected to be cleared of cow itch starting today.

COW ITCH FIX

Major clean-up starts today

Commencing today and continuing tomorrow the cow itch on the Staple Grove Estate, which has been causing problems for the staff and students at the nearby Blackman and Gollop Primary School and residents in the area, is to be scraped away and buried in trenches which are to be dug at strategic areas on the property.

Word of this came from Minister of Environment and National Beautification, Trevor Prescod, who revealed to the media that the work should begin this morning by 9 a.m. He was speaking after he and Acting Minister of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, Lucille Moe and officials of their ministries, representatives of the Blackman and Gollop Primary School and its Parent-Teacher Association, as well as the Barbados Fire Service and representatives of PDF Investments, which owns the offending property, met at the school yesterday morning.

It was during that meeting, Minister Prescod said, that they reached a verbal agreement with the owner of the land to remove, at their own expense, the menacing cow itch vine. This new development comes just a few days after Minister Prescod said his Ministry was preparing to clean the land, and would seek to recoup those costs from the landowner.

“What we have finally agreed on is that we will scrape the surface of the entire land. The arrangement is that we would not go below four inches of soil, so that we can remove all of the seeds from the land [and] remove the plant in its entirety. We are going to dig a number of trenches away from the eastern side, or even if we dig them on the eastern side, we will make sure that the trenches are deep enough so that we would move all the material and put it in those trenches and then the trenches will be covered over with mould or any material that we believe is best suited to make sure that we keep the seeds as dormant as possible for a long time,” he said.

Following the more than two-hour meeting, Minister Prescod told the media that while they cannot right now fully eliminate the cow itch from the land, they believe the plan will mitigate the challenges which have resulted in the intermittent closure of the school when the cow itch is in the air. With that in mind, Minister Prescod indicated that he has asked General Manager of the National Conservation Commission, Keith Neblett and Director of the National Botanical Gardens, Nigel Jones to be present along with representatives of PDF Investments when that work, which he hopes will be completed by Sunday evening, is being carried out.

Acknowledging that there are other lands in close proximity to the school, which bear a similar problem with cow itch, the Environment and National Beautification Minister said steps are being taken to identify those landowners and work to have those properties cleared as well. (JRT)

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