St Peter residents on hold

RESIDENTS at Road View, St Peter, have not been removed to accommodate the recently completed St Peter’s Bay Barbados development, but they will eventually have to move to facilitate another development, once a land deal between Jada Builders Inc. and the Methodist Church is concluded.On Wednesday, Betty Cathrow, project manager of St Peter’s Bay, said the $170 million project of 57 condominiums did not include a nearby plot of 15 000 square feet of land owned by the church.She explained that that tract of land remained the subject of an acquisition being pursued with the Methodists, in spite of displeasure expressed last year by three families, who are still tenants of the Methodist Church on the beach front of Road View. She pointed out that Jada Builders Inc. had built five wall houses across the street from the Methodists tenants to house them and two other families that also had to be relocated.    “We are disappointed to hear that people next door may not be happy about moving because we were so proud of these new houses. It is a significant investment, each one of those homes would retail at $150 000 to $175 000. These houses are very, very nice houses. They are wall houses, they have three bedrooms, kitchen, etc. We are hoping that when they move in that they will actually be really pleased,” Cathrow said.Meanwhile, one of the residents, Leotta Burnett, who told the WEEKEND NATION last August that her family preferred to buy the land from the Methodists, said yesterday, “I wouldn’t like to move at all, but if push come to shove I have to move because this is not my land.”Of the houses, she said, “I like them, but look how small they are – they ain’t got nowhere to put my washing machine.”Nevertheless, Cathrow said: “It is a very similar size. If you take three of the units it is about 15 000 square feet of land. We would be giving back the same amount of square footage in terms of land.”Both residents said that after an initial indication from the Methodist Church last August of their imminent relocation, there had been no definitive word from the church on the removal plan, and Cathrow said: “It is not that we are still in negotiations. Sales take a while to close and the sale just has not closed as yet.”Meanwhile, head of the Methodist Church in Barbados Reverend Cuthbert Edwards told the WEEKEND NATION on Tuesday: “No sale has been concluded. The sale is pending, but there is no guarantee that the sale will go through. It all depends on how the transaction goes.” (SR)