More than 20 new squatters who have set up house in the Zone 1 area at The Belle, St Michael, received enforcement notices last week to remove those structures.
The notices were posted on the illegal buildings by representatives of the Town Planning Department and the squatters were given the usual 28 days in which to demolish the houses.
The area, which abuts The Belle farms, the Old Train Line and the Belle Plantation, has become the new attraction for land-hungry Barbadians even though the householders have no electricity and no water connections.
Because it is a Zone 1 area the residents are not permitted to have any waterborne toilet facilities either.
The majority of houses, built out of plywood, were constructed two years ago on the land that leads to the Belle Pumping Station. That area used to be blocked by a iron barrier but when the DAILY?NATION?team visited yesterday the barrier was moved and covered with overgrown grass.
The residents fetch water by connecting hoses to a pipe at the nearby pumping station while some also have water tanks connected to their homes.
Many of the residents expressed concern about the notices but said they would “wait and see” what happened before making any moves since the squatters on the opposite side had been there for years, even though they, too, had received notices to quit.
Forty-five-year-old Monica Grannum, one of the first people to settle in the area, said she had been crying every day since the notice was posted on her house. She lives with her daughter and seven-year-old granddaughter while her son and his family live next door to her.
Another woman, who did not want to give her name because she works in Government, said she took out three loans to build her small three-bedroom house and was still paying back those loans.
She was the only squatter with a meter attached to her house for electricity but she pointed out that when workmen from the Barbados Light & Power came last week to plant a pole they abandoned the job after seeing the notice on her house.
She said she visited the Town Planning Department?last week and filled out an extension application.
Another man who built his house a year ago said he was not too worried about the notice.
But the situation has left 38-year-old Providence Charles, a recovering substance abuser, between a rock and a hard place.
Charles, who has been a resident at Verdun House for the past two years, started to build a small house in the area two months ago as a way of getting back on his feet.
“I am lost. I?am all mixed up. I don’t know what to do,” he sadly stated.
When contacted yesterday, Member of Parliament for the area, Kenneth Best, told the DAILY?NATION:?“I cannot comment. This is a sensitive issue.”
Chief Town Planner Mark Cummins was also not available because he was out of office yesterday afternoon.
