ST MICHAEL EAST PARLIAMENTARY representative Kenneth Best has said the matter of asking each squatter at the Belle, St Michael to pay $20 towards the water they have been using for several years, was only a suggestion.
Best yesterday also denied that he had spoken to squatter Coleman Quintyne on Monday and asked him to collect the money from his fellow squatters.
“I never told him that and I never told him I do not believe in squatting nor that the NPC (National Petroleum Corporation) should have dug up the pipe. I went to his house on Monday and told his wife that the water was back on but I never spoke to him,” Best stated.
Quintyne told the MIDWEEK?NATION that Best asked him to collect $20 from each of the tenants to pay for the water.
For the past 16 years Quintyne has been holding the key that unlocks the pipe at the NPC’s sub-station to allow squatters to get water
Best, a government back bencher said the squatting situation dated back to the administration of the Barbados Labour Party, now the Opposition.
Asked who would pay the $20 000 water bill which the squatters had incurred, Best said he did not know.
He also stated that he did not know if the issue was discussed by Cabinet.
On Monday morning the water was locked off by an official at the NPC but by the evening it was turned back on.
