Roadblock

Two elderly Gemswick St Philip siblings are crying out for help after their 82-year-old neighbour Eustace Waterman blocked what they are claiming to be the only access to their home.

Eustace Waterman says he blocked this road because it is a part of his property.

An upset 68-year-old Audrey Darlington said she was surprised when she looked through her window this morning to see boulders being placed on the tenantry road her family has been using for almost 100 years.

Siblings Kenneth and Audrey Darlington want what they claim to be the only access to their home unblocked.

But, Waterman who said he was prepared to go to court for the action he had taken insisted the road he blocked was legally his since it formed part of his 1.262-acre property.

However, an unimpressed Darlington told Barbados TODAY that this development meant that private or emergency vehicles could not drive on the road to get to her home.

She said that her brother 72-year-old Kenneth Darlington who is ill and in a wheelchair would also be seriously affected since he sometimes has to be taken for healthcare by an ambulance or private vehicle.

“He say he going to block the road that we can’t pass. Well that is the only access for we to get in and out. I did here for years. This road is the road that was here for years. My old man pass at 105-years-old and this is the road he uses to use,” Darlington said.

“I don’t understand what he doing. We did here for years.

Darlington’s nephew Harlington who said he looked out for the well being of his aunt and uncle, explained that on Sunday he got a call from Waterman warning him about the move to block the road.

“He called me and say ‘I know you is the quietest in the family, this is my land and I get it survey last week’. So he saying he built his guard wall thinking that was the landmark, but the other surveyor now saying this is his landmark here. He saying all this is his land so he gone and block it off.

“But all of this come about because my cousin throw concrete on the road about a month ago, and from the time that there happen he was out here quarreling that nobody shouldn’t put concrete on his land. But he come and find we here.

“This is ridiculous. I don’t think you could block access to anybody home. My uncle got to get to the doctor next week. How he will get out of here when I got to come for he? I does transport he with my jeep all the time,” Harlington said.

Meanwhile, Waterman told Barbados TODAY that while he had given the Darlington’s notice regarding his intended action, he could not understand why they were complaining.

He said he decided to make the move at this point in time since he was in the process of putting necessary measures in place to ensure his children were given their due from his estate.

The Justice of the Peace (JP) also argued that the family had enough unoccupied land to “make a road and get access to their house.

“They have an access, they just don’t want to use it. They were given notice more than two months ago. It was verbal, nothing written. I didn’t have to give them a written notice because I never made any agreement with them.

“This is my property. All I doing is claiming the rest of my property. But I warned them, I alerted them, I told Harlington. I clearing my hand in case I drop down suddenly, my children business would be straight. Everybody wants what belongs to them,” Waterman said.

Police visited the area today to speak to the concerned parties.
anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb