MINISTER OF HOUSING and Lands Denis Kellman said everyone qualified to purchase lots at $5 per square foot could do so, including squatters.
Kellman told the MIDWEEK NATION, “I have said on the floor of the House that anybody is entitled to come to the Government as long as they are working forless than $2 500 a month and buy some of our $5 lots.”
When asked recently what moves were afoot to cater to squatters at areas in The Belle, St Michael, Kellman said, “Once they qualify they are free to come.”
He was unable to say how many of the people living in the Belle area had visited the National Housing Corporation (NHC) to apply.
“I have spoken to the matter and it is up to the interested persons to come forward. I want the public to know that if people are squatting they should not blame this Government because we have put an opportunity for them to have a solution,” Kellman said.
Several areas in Barbados have become synonymous with squatting over the years, including The Belle, Waterford and Haggatt Hall in St Michael as well as Rock Hall, St Philip.
At the beginning of the year Chief Town Planner Mark Cummins reiterated the Town Planning Department was not backing down from its stance that squatters must move from the Zone One water table of The Belle, St Michael.
Cummins said then that the plan to remove the squatters would be tied to an amended Barbados Water Authority Act that will classify The Belle as an exclusion zone and possible zone A area, a change from its current zone one classification.(LK)
