LEGISLATION MIGHT be the long-term solution to the problem of overgrown vacant lots across Barbados.
Responding to concerns expressed by the Union Community Association in St Philip yesterday, Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite said maintenance of empty lots could be a costly exercise and legislation mandating that landowners keep the land “a certain fashion” seemed to be the answer.
“The process, as I understand, is you need to write to the landowner, you need to give them time to rectify the lot, and then the Ministry of Health can go in. But by the time the Ministry of Health goes in and cleans, three months later the lot is back to the same situation, it’s a recurring problem….It’s a real problem that we need to address,” he said, adding that he recently visited a district where rats were coming from an overgrown lot.
Chairman of the association, Selvin Burton, said that maintaining the vacant lots was a “major problem”, but he confirmed that they would get assistance from the Ministry of Health occasionally. (YB)
