If Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy had his way Government-endorsed housing estates would look a little more like hotels – going up to ten storeys high and being well laid out.
“I don’t have a problem with ten storeys,” he said yesterday when the National Housing Corporation (NHC) launched its “urban high-rise housing programme” at Valery, St Michael, where Barbados’ first six-storey residential complex is under construction at a cost of about $18 million.
Sealy acknowledged there were “negative aspects” to accommodating families in tall buildings but in an interview afterwards said “the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages”.
While people spoke about the possibility of fire and the problem of safely evacuating so many families, “these buildings are designed with the appropriate firewalls”, Sealy, Member of Parliament for the area, told the DAILY NATION. (TY)
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