Vendors, residents call for resolution to a range of issues affecting neighbourhood
By Anesta Henry
Poor garbage collection, inadequate lighting, noise pollution, and an influx of suspected drug users are some of the issues affecting residents and vendors at Dover, Christ Church.
And they are calling on authorities to move swiftly to resolve some of the issues.
On Thursday, Parliamentary Representative for Christ Church South, Ralph Thorne and Chairman of the National Conservation Commission (NCC) Senator Lorenzo Harewood, who headed a delegation that visited the area to investigate the complaints, told Barbados TODAY the problems require medium to long-term fixes.
However, Harewood stressed that the vendors at Dover, who are NCC tenants, needed to band together to help improve their environs.
He said the NCC will be increasing its presence in the area, and gave the assurance that the drainage, lighting, and garbage collection issues would be addressed in the immediate future.
“There are more long-term fixes that stem from the non-physical aspects of the environment. There are vendors that have issues with each other, vendors that have issues engaging with state-owned enterprises, and then residents that have issues with things like garbage,” Harewood said.
“We are going to call a stakeholders meeting with agencies like the SSA [Sanitation Service Authority] and the Ministry of Health to see how best we can have a massive intervention in the area.”
Thorne, who noted that it was his duty to represent his constituents, said while the garbage collection issue was one that could be easily remedied by the SSA, he was concerned about people who were apparently drug addicts congregating in Dover and Oistins.
“I don’t know what the solution to that problem is. I suspect it would be long-term, but that is one of the major problems. There will also be the problem of keeping the area safe, security, and who provides security. There is nothing wrong with an individual tenant providing his own security but then that is an additional expense,” he said.
The veteran attorney-at-law added: “The question is whether they want to redraw the contract between them and NCC, for NCC to provide security. Although I know that there are beach rangers around. I don’t know what their precise role is and if their role extends to the security of the entire area or if they just operate on the beach. These are not problems that are beyond solution; sometimes the most difficult thing is consultation. We want to thank the NCC for responding and coming.”
As far as resident and community activist Adrian Donovan is concerned, the main issue is garbage collection.
He said the foul odour from the pile-ups was hurting vendors’ business as it was turning off tourists.
“People from all over the area come and dump, and it is making the community look bad. The vendors are greatly affected because of the smell leading to tourists refusing to come. When it rains, the place is a mess, and there are one or two areas that the vagrants have taken over and that needs to be addressed,” Donovan lamented.
President of the Dover Square 247 Association, Roslyn Wilkinson, said the 13 stall owners in the area also believe the facilities need to be properly cleaned and maintained and the trees trimmed. They further called for an end to people hanging their wash on the fence enclosing the area.
“Some [homeless persons] sleep on the benches, so when the tourists come in, they tend to harass the tourists. But other than that, I don’t have any problems with them, period. I just want Dover to be Dover. I am looking to uplift Dover and the vendors in the square, and I will not stop until I achieve it,” Wilkinson said.
Meanwhile, 1st Avenue Dover resident Loreto Duffy-Mayers complained that residents have a major issue with noise pollution, which often results from events being held in the vendors’ area.
She said not only were residents finding out about the events at late notice but the problem of cars parking in and blocking residents’ driveways had reached unacceptable levels.
“We don’t think that certain events are suitable for the area as they tend to attract groups of people, and we find at the end that cars are broken into and people’s things are taken from their yards and their galleries. We find damage to cars and stuff like that,” Duffy-Mayers said.
“The area is so small that we don’t have the facilities to have the events. Now we did get a warning when they had Baje to De World, and it was very well managed. But when they have events here, and we only find out about them on the days they are happening, it is a scramble for residents to get into their homes. We have had issues where people just park in people’s driveways. We need to get advanced notice of when events are happening.”
President of the Oistins Bay Garden Inc. Kemar Harris said he was in the process of forming an umbrella association for vendors that rent from the NCC, including those at Dover and Rockley, Christ Church.
“It is important that we speak with one voice because, in some way or fashion, all of us encounter the same experience. So what was spoken about this morning as it relates to NCC and Dover, I can relate because we at Oistins actually went through that before,” he said.
When contacted, President of the Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness (BAEH) Kemar Saffrey said his organisation had assessed the issues of suspected drug abusers creating issues at Dover and Oistins.
He said homeless people who used drugs were attracted to those areas because of easy access to their preferred substances, and it was difficult for his organisation to intervene because “they are more aggressive”.
Saffrey said law enforcement officers, health authorities, and other stakeholders need to get involved in the process of getting those persons institutionalised.
“Every player has to be on board to make this happen. I find that people think that the Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness is the only solution to homelessness. While we are here to provide the programmes, we are not a psychiatric hospital, we are not a drug treatment facility. Those facilities are already available, we just need everybody to come together to address this situation,” the BAEH president said.
