Land dispute intensifies

Octogenarian Eustace Waterman has escalated his land dispute with his neighbours at Gemswick, St Philip.

Just a week ago sixty-eight-year-old Audrey Darlington complained that Waterman impeded the passage of emergency service vehicles, including ambulances and fire trucks, by placing boulders on the road which she claimed was the only access to her home.

However, this morning, the elderly man who said he was seeking to claim his land, has now excavated the entire road making it completely impassable.

The road at Gemswick, St Philip which has been excavated.

Darlington who was furious by the latest development, said she was in the process of seeking legal advice.

She said she was prepared to head to the law courts to fight for the land, which her family has been using as an access point for almost 100 years.

“This is too hard on me. Ambulance, or nothing can’t get by me. That ain’t good enough. He got all the access anybody could get to him, but nobody could get at me,” Darlington said.

“Yesterday morning as early as 7 o clock he and two men came and marked the road. So this morning before 8 o’clock they were here with a bobcat or the thing that you normally dig up the road with. And before 8 o’clock it was finished. “He start with one and he end with the second one, so I would now got to try and see what I could do now, because nobody could get in to me. With the boulders you could still walk, but now with the digging up you can’t even walk now,” the resident added.

Darlington also claimed that the excavation of the road also prevented a garbage truck, which was in the area at the time, from passing.

However, she said she was more concerned about her sick brother, 72-year-old Kenneth Darlington, who would be seriously disadvantaged if he was to take ill and an ambulance had to be called.

“He got to go back to the doctor next week. I don’t know how he would be able to get out because his nephew or an ambulance normally take him for medical attention. But he must go back to the doctor next week,” she said.

After the boulders were placed, Darlington filed a complaint at the Town and Country Department, Warrens, St Michael. Officials at the department promised her that they would investigate the matter, which had also been reported to the police.

However, attorney-at-law Ernest Jackman told Barbados TODAY that Darlington should have headed to the High Court and request an injunction to prevent Waterman from further blocking the access. Blackman said that the siblings were entitled to rights of passage.

The attorney explained that if residents in an area have been using a particular area of land for a minimum of 20 years, they would have acquired a right of passage over the spot.

Through a telephone interview this evening, Waterman, a Justice of Peace, maintained that the access path formed part of his land. He once more suggested that the Darlington’s had enough unoccupied space on their land to make a road and get access to their house. He said he got the land excavated because he was ready to put up a guard wall.

The landowner also complained that while the excavation was taking place, he was “pushed down” by a trespasser on his property, forcing him to seek medical attention for an injured hand. He said he intended to file a police complaint as soon as possible.

“I am paying for 1 262 square feet of which that road is part of. I supposed to give my son that and I cannot unfair my son having paid for this land around 1983. I want to know what the land registry is charging me for. Because if I have to pay for that, it has to be under my control. But they want to claim it,” Waterman said. anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb