By Robert A. Emmanuel
Parliament has passed a resolution to compulsory acquire the last house they say has been delaying the start of the Booby Alley redevelopment.
The social housing project has been beset by a variety of delays—chief among them, the relocation of residents.
Prime Minister Gaston Browne reported in April that all residents needed to be moved to enable Chinese contractors to begin technical drawings for the area.
During a Parliamentary session on Monday, the Prime Minister repeated that assertion, adding that the government has been patient long enough.
“I have to admit when I intervened they indicated that they will cooperate, but a month later, we have not been able to sign a formal agreement.
“I am told now that one of the sisters is in the United States and she’s ill and we pray for her speedy recovery; perhaps they are still willing to proceed to do a voluntary deal, but I don’t know if we can wait any longer,” Prime Minister Browne said.
“Initially, this building was not intended to be part of the Booby Alley project, so it was not part of the compulsory acquisition that we did two, three years ago, but subsequently the Chinese technical team said to us that property had to be removed to facilitate the temporary design that they had done at the time,” he added.
In October 2018, the government accepted a grant from China to construct 250 homes in total, encompassing North Street to St John’s Street on Wilkinson’s Cross; west on St John’s Street to Mariner’s Lane; south on Mariner’s Lane to North Street; and east on North Street to Wilkinson’s Cross.
Residents of Booby Alley had long expressed firm opposition against their relocation, with riots and legal battles against the government plaguing the project since its announcement.
In August 2022, the Prime Minister warned residents could face legal action over their reluctance to move. Many of the homes were in a considerable state of disrepair.
In June of this year, during the execution of a court order to remove one of the remaining residents, Joel O’Marde was shot with rubber bullets by police officers, after he refused to comply with the order and became extremely aggressive against court officers during the ordeal.
Leader of the Opposition Jamale Pringle, meanwhile, raised concerns over the use of compulsory acquisition of property, claiming that he feared another “Half Moon Bay” situation in which the government expropriated resort land triggering a long legal battle over compensation.
“We cannot continue just because we have the power in this Honourable House to compulsory acquire people’s property; work around that, start the development while the negotiations are ongoing for this particular plot,” Pringle argued.
He also criticised the lack of technical information provided to the Parliament on the need for the removal of the property.
However, Housing Minister Maria Browne and Tourism Minister Charles Fernandez both argued that the government has negotiated long enough and noted that the move to forcibly acquire the property was for the sole purpose of a social housing project.
“We have done everything in terms of negotiations with property owners, we have spoken to them, they have been compensated in both land and cash,” Minister Browne said.
She added, “It is not the case where we are going to go into any other constituencies and just compulsory acquire left, right and centre…when we compulsory acquire properties, it is for a public purpose and this public purpose is for social housing.”
Minister Fernandez also weighed in on the discussion.
“We speak about negotiating; how long are you going to negotiate for? Two years, three years, four years?” he said.
“And I will tell you something else: while we are negotiating, the price of materials going up, so where you would have gotten so much for $10 million two years ago, you are going to have spent $15 million,” he added.