‘It can’t work’

Member of Parliament for St Michael East Trevor Prescod has publicly declared that he will fight the decision to temporarily relocate people whose homes were damaged by Hurricane Elsa to housing units being built in his constituency.

A visibly irate Prescod told members of the media on Wednesday that he had not been consulted on moving the hurricane-displaced residents from the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) Labour College in Mangrove, St Philip to Tichbourne, St Michael, where Government is building steel-framed housing units.

“I am going to take this matter a little further because it seems to me there is no intention of any form of compromise, no intention of any discussion with me.

“It seems to be a hard-headed decision that has already been made that the people are coming from Mangrove here, in a transitory form, and that I have to accept that regardless of what the consequences are, and I am not! I am not accepting it!” declared the Government MP who was at a press conference to provide an update on the Barbados Construction Gateway Training Initiative.

He insisted that he would not stand by and allow his constituents to be disadvantaged after he had fought for over a decade for low-income housing solutions to be made available to them.

Revealing that he had persuaded the late Prime Minister David Thompson, prior to 2008, to sell the land in Tichbourne for the sole purpose of constructing houses for his constituents, Prescod maintained: “I worked too hard to get this land from David Thompson and his father – and you can imagine me persuading the leader of an Opposition at that specific time –…. and I am not accepting any decision, however large and powerful a Cabinet is, telling me that they found themselves in a crisis in making a decision and they have reached the point where they will no longer use the facilities at the BWU and the next stop is St Michael East. It cannot work!”

“I have too many homeless and poverty-stricken persons in my community that certainly qualify [for that housing]. I am not supportive of a policy that sees St Michael East for the purpose of establishing any transitory units. I believe that the housing policy should focus on constructing those units at strategic points across Barbados so that people who have been displaced from specific areas will have an opportunity to live in close proximity to where they came from,” he argued.

Prescod said he received no communication regarding the relocation and had so far only heard about it through unofficial channels.

When questioned, Senior Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for coordinating infrastructural projects, Dr William Duguid who was also at the press conference confirmed that people whose homes had not yet been repaired or rebuilt following Hurricane Elsa’s passing last year would be relocated from the Labour College where they have been staying to the housing units.

However, he maintained it was only temporary.

“We wanted to get these [houses for displaced residents] up very fast and as you can see they have made fast progress but obviously, it’s not as fast as we would like. So they have people who have been at that provided accommodation [BWU Labour College] much, much longer than we had anticipated.

“The intent is transitional, until when we get other facilities for them to then move on to another provided location,” Dr Duguid said.

However, Prescod, who served as Minister of the Environment and National Beautification in the previous Mia Mottley administration, was adamant that he opposed any relocation to the new units in his constituency, temporary or otherwise.

“I know what temporary means in terms of government, I understand that well…. I’ve seen it in many other places and I’ve even seen people move into houses on a temporary basis and up to now the Government can’t dare to put them out,” he said.

“I’ve been agitating from day one against that being the policy and down here must not be any test case for any human being on the face of the earth as long as I am parliamentary representative. I am not disrespectful of a Cabinet decision. . .  but I am saying that I have not had enough time to defend the interests of my people.”

randybennett@barbadostoday.bb