‘INSULT’

St James Central MP Kerrie Symmonds on Tuesday broke his silence on the saga between the people of Olive Lodge, Holders Hill and telecom firms Digicel over a contentious temporary cell tower, demanding the firm apologise to the country for erecting the mast in the village without first consulting the people who live there.

A “vulgar and unacceptable insult” was how the area MP characterised the firm’s conduct, 48 days after the tower went up in the village.

“I feel an apology is owed to the people of the constituency and, by extension, to the people of Barbados because this is now happening too often,” he told Barbados TODAY.

Ever since the mast was set up around mid-January, residents have led a persistent campaign for its removal, citing a breach of best practice that requires towers to be a minimum of 65 feet from the nearest home, despite one home being measured at 40 feet away, amid fears that the radio-frequency radiation levels could pose cancer and other health risks.

Villagers clashed with Digicel and the Telecommunications Unit which regulates telecoms’ technical operations, prompting an American environmental NGO to weigh in. On Sunday, residents met and planned to stage a peaceful picket outside Government Headquarters on Bay Street and present Prime Minister Mia Mottley with a letter of their concerns to further press for the tower’s relocation. They put the protest on hold following an assurance from Digicel that it was in the process of moving the mast out of the district.

But on Tuesday, Symmonds, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, declared he was not at all happy with Digicel’s treatment of his constituents, noting that such behaviour is becoming a trend among some private sector leaders.

An emotional Symmonds contended that the utility cannot claim ignorance of the requirements for erecting such a structure in a residential community because the provisions are contained in the Planning and Development Act of 2019 which was passed after wide consultation with and input from commercial figures.

“I feel that this particular service provider has acted in a manner that is completely unacceptable and insulting to the people of my constituency, and, quite frankly, in a manner that is absolutely vulgar,” he said.

“The public is being guaranteed under the new Act that they would have an input into decision-making…that they would have a right to be heard, and that sustainable development issues such as how you impact a community and its health and well-being, are issues that would have to be canvassed with the public.”

While putting the private sector to the sword, the government minister was adamant that the “disrespect” shown to the householders of Olive Lodge went to the heart of a broader issue of how corporate Barbados treated ordinary people.

“This issue is an example of how the private sector in Barbados seeks to take a shortcut, humbug people and expect to get away with it. That Planning and Development Act requires that planning permission be given in order to commence or conduct any development of land in Barbados. After it says that, it makes it clear that the making of any material change in the use of land constitutes a development.

“Now, if you ask the question, ‘When I go and put this new technology in somebody’s neighbourhood, am I making a material change in the use of the land?’, the answer is self-evident.”

“The Act itself says that the use of any land, other than any land within which the boundaries of a road fall, that if you take that land and use it to site movable or temporary buildings, a chattel house, a mobile trailer, whether it has wheels or not, and it is left there for more than 28 days, it involves a material change in the use of the land. This is the law of Barbados,” he stressed.

Declaring that he refused to accept that Digicel did not know the law, Symmonds said the legislation provides for an application to be made to the Planning and Development Department for guidance in a case where an entity is unsure whether permission is needed for change of use.

“What has happened is that we have a service provider who disregarded the law and has now gone into a community, created concerns about people’s health and wellbeing, without reference to the people in the community, and has ignored those concerns and goes about doing its business.

“It is a vulgar and unacceptable insult to the people of Barbados when corporate Barbados acts in this manner,” he stressed.

Insisting that this matter has nothing to do with government or politics, Symmonds contended that there is a role for Town Planning, particularly in the broader scheme of development.

He noted that town planners have the power to require any applicant to give notice of or to publicise the application if it is of strategic economic significance or environmental significance.

In this case, the MP said, while the company has stated the tower was necessary to provide adequate coverage for some 2 500 residents and 25 businesses, there is environmental significance.

“They have to make the case that what they are doing is not going to harm the community. And that is for the Town Planner to get involved with. I can’t do that…and that is why I have to be very guarded…because, as MP, I feel very strongly about the vulgarity of the conduct. But I also recognise that as a minister of government, I have to allow Town Planning to work its course,” he said. “So, this matter is with the Town Planner, and as facilitator of sustainable development and as regulator, they still have to play a role.”

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb