City residents to move to make way for major housing development

A number of residents in Greenfield, St Michael will be temporarily relocated to Whitepark Road, St Michael to allow the government to undertake a major housing project.

Although he did not provide details, Minister of Housing Dwight Sutherland said some of the residents would be placed in the 16 units at Solaris Court in Whitepark Road when that housing estate is completed by the end of this month.

He said the relocation process would be done in phases and that Greenfield would be the first housing area in Bridgetown to be modified.

Sutherland was speaking during a handing-over ceremony to new residents of Alleyne’s Court, Whitepark Road on Monday.

He said Greenfield, Chapman Lane, Murphy’s Pasture and Cats Castle were on the moving list, adding that the redevelopment was part of the greater Bridgetown Rehabilitation Project which started in 2021.

The minister said the government was concerned that there were people living in dilapidated houses in flood-prone areas.

“We’re looking to have a holistic city, having a town centre – commercial activity with bars and restaurants – and it is like creating a Disney World. We need to have green spaces, we need to have places for recreation and we need to have housing. If you travel across the globe, you see that most cities are populated with persons living on top of stores,” he said.
“We are seeking to address what we call inefficient housing, dilapidated housing. And if you go as far as Greenfield, you see some of those structures are not of good structural integrity…. We intend to relocate some of the persons in Greenfield and go into Greenfield and do the necessary rehabilitation – address the infrastructure, address the drainage, address the living conditions – and thereafter do the necessary building to allow Greenfield to indeed take its true shape as part of a restructured city and a rehabilitated city with good drainage, good, infrastructure and proper housing,” he added.

Asked how many people would move, Sutherland said his ministry was currently carrying out a survey to determine that.

Residents in Murphy’s Pasture will also be moving, the minister said, noting that six houses at Kensington New Road, St Michael were identified to facilitate the move.
(SZB)