Frustrated resident wants police to take action

Frustrated Melrose St Thomas resident Beverley Harewood is calling on Government to make indiscriminate burning by householders a criminal offence.

Suggesting that police should be given the authority to arrest persons caught burning garbage around their homes, Harewood who was diagnosed with asthma in 2009, said she felt like a prisoner in her home as a result of the activity by a neighbour.

“I have called the police for one lady more times than I care to mention. The first time I did was a couple years ago, and I was told to call the Fire Service because it was their job, and all the police can do is to issue a warning. The gentleman who I spoke to at the Fire Service said it was the police department’s job because the person was being a menace to society and a public nuisance. Being tossed between the two departments brought me to tears. I asked them if they were going to wait until she kill me to do something about her.

“Fast forward to present day, it smells like plastic and tyres she has been burning these past two weeks, which are highly toxic. So because no one can do anything about her, I have to be a prisoner in my own home and only allowed to open my windows when she allows me to? I do not see how that in any lifetime could be considered to be fair,” Harewood said.

St Thomas resident Beverley Harewood, an asthmatic, says she feels like a prisoner in her home.

The resident said she believed that the same way a law against the use of single-use plastic was introduced, and a show on the beach was postponed to save turtles from being destroyed, legislation should be passed to protect vulnerable residents  across the island from indiscriminate burning.

She said it was not good enough that police officers were limited to just warning persons who practice indiscriminate burning. “They should be able to arrest them and take them before the law courts when they continue to do it after they have been warned.

“I would think if it’s known to persons that there are asthmatics in their neighbourhood, which is what I have told her, that she would stop. I also told the police I am asthmatic, yet she continues to burn. Shouldn’t that be seen as endangering someone else’s life?

“I joined the group Citizens Against Burning Stuff group on Facebook back in 2011, where we are trying to bring awareness to indiscriminate burning. I was even featured in a GIS [Government Information Service] presentation to help sensitise the public to show the dangers of the practice, and nine years later, apparently there is still no law to safeguard us, the ones suffering under the hands of these insensitive people.

“I believe if you put persons in authority to protect and serve, make sure it’s a duty they can carry out to the fullest. I would like the powers that be to do what needs to be done to show these people that the days of warnings are over and that action will be taken,” Harewood said.

The asthmatic told Barbados TODAY that she was in possession of a video taken with her phone showing black smoke billowing from the residence.

She argued that there was no reason for persons to burn stuff in the district since they could depend on a reliable garbage collection service.

When the home of the alleged offending party was visited, a young adult who did not give his name admitted that his family burnt stuff at times but added that they were not the only household that did it.

Member of Parliament, Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Cynthia Forde was unable to respond since she was at Parliament..
anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb