Relocation complex

The process of moving the squatters and their homes from Rock Hall, St. Philip is not a simple one that can happen overnight.

Yesterday morning, the new Minister of Housing, Lands and Maintenance, Dr. William Duguid broke ground at Parish Land, St. Philip where a road will be constructed. When completed, 16 lots on one side and four lots on the other side of the road will be available for housing as government starts its Relocation Programme for the residents at Rock Hall.

Additionally, as part of the Programme, the remainder of the “about 250 houses” in Rock Hall will be relocated to the area adjacent to Her Majesty’s Prisons Dodds. This is expected to comprise about “186 lots”.

The average lot size for the area at Parish Land is 3 000 to 3 500 square feet.

Explaining the how it all works, Duguid said the process takes “quite long” while noting “it isn’t a matter of just come, identify and move.”

“What we have to do is make sure the land belongs to the government first, then we have to actually design, get Town Planning permission and then design the road. So we have gone through all of that process, gotten the Town Planning permission for the development and we have had the road designed by the [former] Ministry of Transport, Works and Maintenance. And once we have then constructed the road, then at the same time in a simultaneous way, we are designing the one for Concordia Gardens as well. So it is a process; it is going to take us a while but we are committed to getting this done as quickly and as seamlessly as possible so that we can relocate those residents to these new locations and move them away from the airport, and the hazardous situation that they are now experiencing.”

Duguid said he hopes “to get this project completed and the road built in a matter of six to eight weeks and then after we get the road built, we will then start the Programme where we start to move houses into this area to start our whole relocation project. This is the first, the second one will be Concordia Gardens which is just adjacent to the Dodds Prison area. We started the process and we are going through all of the various steps to be able to get these matters completed.”

Earlier this year, government officially served notice stating its intentions to compulsorily acquire the lands at Gemswick and Rock Hall, St. Philip where the squatters reside for safety reasons.

Responding to a question about what will happen to the Rock Hall residents who do not wish to be relocated, he said government is taking it one step at a time.

“We will start with the ones that want to move and then we will come to negotiation with the others. But we are going to try our best to come to an amicable situation for everybody included.” (MG)