CITY OF BRIDGETOWN Member of Parliament Jeffrey Bostic has lamented that since 2008 residents have not been given any information by Government on the proposed neighbourhood housing upgrade programme funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The Barbados Labour Party representative noted that even Government ministers had acknowledged the poor quality of the housing stock in the urban corridor, which included areas such as Cat’s Castle and Greenfields.
Speaking during debate Tuesday on a resolution to compulsorily acquire 3 380.1 square metres of land in Whitepark, St Michael, for housing development, Bostic recalled a Democratic Labour Party (DLP) manifesto pledge to attack pockets of poverty in a systematic way focusing on entire districts rather than individual units.
“Now, I would like to think that Cat’s Castle and the Greenfields constitute entire districts,” he said. “So that when [St Philip North MP, former Minister of Housing Michael Lashley] makes a lot to do about the fact that 400 people were granted $10 000 grants when districts that were supposed to have $9.5 million [and] $8.5 million in infrastructural development, not one blind cent was spent, then what are you telling me!”
