More than 70 families waiting on keys for the spanking new housing units in Country Road and Tweedside Road, St Michael, will receive belated Christmas gifts in January.
That’s the word from Minister of Housing and Lands Michael Lashley who told the SUNDAY SUN that their “wait will soon be over”.
“Once the roadwork being done by Rayside and C.O. Williams is completed, we will be ready to hand over the keys. “We were also waiting on the Barbados Water Authority and other agencies to put in utilities and I can now report that many of the units also have in these services with the rest to be completed shortly.”
Lashley’s comments came during an interview in which he was questioned about Government’s plans regarding its promised low-income housing lot programme.To this end, he said, two resolutions had been prepared to be tabled in Parliament next month to vest more than 100 lots to the National Housing Corporation (NHC) in January.
Most of these lots were in John, but the rest were spread across St Philip, St Joseph, St George and St Lucy.Areas in St John, where 115 lots had already been vested in the NHC or were earmarked to be vested, included Clifton Hill, Guinea, Pool, Henley and Todd.“Once the resolutions are passed, a total of 244 lots on 3 500 square feet of land would have been vested in the NHC,” Lashley said, adding that the land would be sold at $5 per square foot.
“These are specifically for low-income earners, with prospective homeowners also being provided with assistance from the NHC in drawing up their plans for their homes,” he added.
Questioned about when construction would start on housing projects at Parish Land, and Lancaster 1 and 2, he said the $40 million approved by Parliament should be “rolled out” shortly.
“Some 20 small contractors will be working on these 200 houses,” he said.
The SUNDAY SUN also questioned Lashley about a touted new City project which would see two high-rise units going up in Eckstein Village and Mason Hall Street.“I can’t say much on this at the moment since a paper is now being prepared for Cabinet,” he responded. (CG)
