Consultation held with Booby Alley residents

The government will go to parliament within the next week to compulsorily acquire three-and-a-half acres of land in the Point Area  earmarked for development, the prime minister revealed.
Speaking on Pointe FM, Gaston Browne said that there are over 110 houses crammed on the lands, and as the prime minister and MP for the area, it would be criminally negligent for him to overlook that Booby Alley is a slum that lacks good housing and proper sanitation and poses a serious health hazard.
Browne’s comments came shortly after he met with some of the residents in an hour-and-a-half long discussion to hear their thoughts and concerns about the impending development.
“As it stands right now, most of the homes there do not have proper sanitation facilities; it is a fire hazard in terms of the clusters of homes and if there were to be a fire, a number of homes would be taken out and it’s a health hazard because there are some unpaved alleys and when it rains there are issues of mosquitoes,” Browne said.
The prime minister noted that the plan is to move the residents on a phased basis where some would be moved to start construction and the rest would be relocated to other locations, close to their current location.
Browne added that the condominium-style housing is part of the Urban Renewal programme that would give the residents an opportunity to own better housing.
“Those who have shops we will make sure that we have shops to accommodate them as well so that there will be no permanent dislocation. We may have to temporarily relocate them as we build, and we intend to utilise properties within the constituency in order to accommodate them temporarily and then when we complete the buildings we move them back,” he added.
Officials from the statistics department also attended Saturday’s meeting.
The government expects to spend in excess of $20 million on the Booby Alley redevelopment. According to Browne, the government is hoping to secure a $13.5 million grant from the government of Mexico that would be used to build rental units.