MP says Govt has forgotten White Hill

George Payne is dissatisfied and hurt by the way the Mia Mottley-led administration has treated the residents of White Hill in the St Andrew constituency which he represents.

He has accused the Government of not only neglecting the area since winning the 2018 elections but selling off land that was acquired specifically for them.

“My Members of Parliament do not understand that there is a place called White Hill. It is like a village that has been neglected as if it isn’t a part of Barbados. It is a place that has been segregated from the rest of Barbados, a place that people live daily without water, without transportation, without proper housing . . . ,” Payne said in the House of Assembly.

“After the last election, I am a little disappointed that we took on the problems in White Hill – the people who help account for the 30-0 defeat – but not once have we gone back in order to analyse the problems of that area.”

The former Minister of Housing, who is also currently the longest serving Member of Parliament, said he was hurt by this situation.

“I am pained by the fact that we can now, despite the position we took, go back to the same Lancaster [St James], whether in the terms of a land fair or whatever, and involve the whole of Barbados on lands that are rightfully owned by the people of White Hill. We could continue the policies of the Democratic Labour Party Government and have an all-day land fair to literally give away the lands,” he contended.

“Go back to the debates when I was Minister of Housing and see why the land at Lancaster was acquired. It was acquired for the people of White Hill, the people who were affected by the ravishes of nature, the people who could afford land at $5 a square foot. And simply for a photo op, we have a land fair.”

Payne made the comments during his tribute to the late former Prime Minister Owen Arthur said the veteran politician would be “turning in his grave or, rather, running in his grave”, if he knew what was happening.

“It was a policy of the Ministry of Housing, but it is a policy that was influenced by Owen Arthur. Do not allow those rich people to come and take over your land. This land belongs to the people of White Hill. This land belongs to the poor people…,” he insisted.

“Owen Arthur wanted every person to own a piece of the rock. Owen Arthur would be turning in his grave now. You are selling the same land that was to be given to those people at $15 a square foot. The Government was changed May 24, 2018, the Government was not changed when I was removed from the Ministry of Housing…. I don’t know how to explain certain things to my

constituents. I wouldn’t know how to explain certain things to Owen Arthur if he came back from his grave. It is hurtful to see that he passed and he left us at a time when something like this is happening,” Payne lamented. (IMC)