A?GOOD?NIGHT’S REST has become a thing of the past for Colin Forde.
The elderly man, who resides at Parks Road, St Joseph, is afraid that a high gust of wind may blow down the house that he has called home for most of his life.
And he wants to move to safer ground urgently.
Forde, 68, complained that his house was sitting on land that had been slipping for several years and the situation was worsening to the extent that his house was now falling apart.
“I went to Dale Marshall, [parliamentary representative for St Joseph], in 2006 and he wrote the Minister of Housing and Lands, who at the time was Reginald Farley. I?was informed that the houses out here would be relocated to Farmers, St Thomas. Upwards till now nothing has happened.”
An upset Forde said he also went to the National Housing Corporation (NHC) asking for assistance.
“I went to the NHC on June 3, 2009, and I went back on August 7, 2010. I spoke to Minister of Housing Michael Lashley and he tell me he would work on it. I?went back there on May 2, and still nothing. This is ridiculous,” he cried.
Referring to his diary, Forde said that on April 20 he heard the house creaking badly and discovered that it had moved even farther off its props.
“I?am having restless nights. When the house start to creak, I?have to run out of my bedroom and go to the bedroom in the front. The house is moving off the foundation,” he said, pointing to huge cracks in the steps and wide spaces between the boards of his timber house.
When contacted, Marshall confirmed that there was a plan during the tenure of the Barbados Labour Party Government to move some of the residents from Parks Road, to Farmers.
“We first had to do a survey of the residents of the entire Parks Road area who wanted to be relocated because there were some residents who wanted to remain there. A team was sent out to do the interviews, but that work has never commenced. The Ministry of Housing was not then and is not now moving with any urgency,” he stated.
Calling the situation in the rural district “perilous”, Marshall said he had been calling on the ministry to put in place a “total project” to deal with the problems associated with the Scotland District.
He promised to visit Forde and to raise the matter again with the Ministry of Housing.