President of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Dr Ronnie Yearwood has expressed concern that Barbadians are being left out of important development decisions, even as they lose their lands to foreign investors.
He said this was happening despite assurances from the current administration to the contrary, and citizens must pay closer attention to what is happening.
Speaking briefly at his party’s joint zonal meeting at Mile Tree Bar, Arthur Seat, St Thomas on Sunday, Yearwood made reference to the recent fight by St Joseph residents to get the developer of the old Edgewater Hotel property to remove columns blocking their access to the riverbanks on both sides of the Joe’s River Bridge.
“The reality is, the land issues in St Joseph cannot be dealt with privately. The land issues in St Joseph are a national fight; they are not only the fight for the people in St Joseph. There is a fight for the people in St Andrew; there is a fight for the people right here in St Thomas,” he declared.
He said the St Joseph issue, the lack of attention being paid to the Graeme Hall swamp area in Christ Church, and the relocation of administrative buildings in Holetown, St James to make way for a new seven-storey Royalton Hotel were all connected to the same problem.
“There is a fight for all of us because what they are doing to the people in St Joseph, they will do to you. They will do it to you in Dover, they will do it to you at Graeme Hall, they will do it to you and take away the post office in Holetown. They will do these things to you,” Yearwood asserted.
He insisted that addressing this is a top priority for the DLP and one from which it would not back down.
“When we are fighting, we are fighting for the folks in Six Men’s . . . . When we are fighting, we are fighting for the folks in Holetown who will not have access to the beach when they remove the post office and the police from there. That is what we are fighting for,” Yearwood said.
He repeated his call for the Government to offer leasehold arrangements on properties slated for development projects rather than allowing them to be sold outright to foreign investors.
“The reality is, we have to have a national land development policy where the land in this country is leased to non-Barbadians. You should not have the right to purchase and own land directly in this country. It is not your land; you would have a right to lease it, to benefit from that land, but at the end of that lease that land goes back to the heirs of this country,” the party leader said.
“That land goes back to the future of this country so they can use it and do things for their children. That is how you create generational wealth. That is the vision and the dream of the Democratic Labour Party for you and your children of this country.”
Read our ePaper. Fast. Factual. Free.
Sign up and stay up to date with Barbados' FREE latest news.
Barbados Today firmly discourages any commentary or statements that are libelous, disruptive in nature or incites others to violate our Terms of Use. Any submissions made on our comment section, are solely the views of the individual and not Barbados Today.