IMBERT SHOCKED AT HILLSIDE RAPE

DIEGO MARTIN East MP Colm Imbert is questioning the construction of apartments on the steep slope of Valeview Terrace, St Lucien Road, Diego Martin, which poses a serious threat to nearby properties because of the danger of landslides; and is causing huge traffic jams and inconvenience to residents.

The owner and developer of the land and the project, is known only as a Mr S Mahabir. Yesterday one resident discovered that her two-year-old, solid concrete wall had not only been broken by the pounding of the sidewalk, by enormous bulldozers over the past few months, but had been sandblasted and its colour changed from dark to light brown. The bulldozers have been manoeuvring across St Lucien Road onto the sidewalk in order to climb the narrow steep hillside to the construction site. When the resident drew the broken wall to the attention of the workmen on site yesterday, they laughed and said, “don’t worry, he (the contractor) will fix it.” When the brother of the contractor, a Mr Sookram Mahabir, who also lives on St Lucien Road, was told to let his brother know that the wall had been damaged by his machinery, Sookram replied, “The rain broke the wall. We are tired of your complaints. Call the police. Do what you want..”

When Newsday’s photographer arrived to take pictures of the damage done to the wall, Sookram Mahabir mocked him, and yelled, “Take a picture of me, nah.” However, yesterday, when contacted by Newsday, MP for the area, Colm Imbert expressed shock and horror at what was taking place on the hillside, with mud flowing down into St Lucien Road. The MP said he intends to find out what is going on in Valeview. Imbert, an engineer, said that he thought something was “terribly wrong” with the project when he first noticed it on Saturday while driving along St Lucien Road, on his way to River Estate. Imbert said that his first observation was that there seems to be no appropriate access to the construction site. He also noted that it was “a terrible mess, and a great inconvenience to residents.”

The MP said he plans this morning to write to the Minister of Planning, Dr Keith Rowley and the Minister responsible for the Environmental Management Authority, Dr Rennie Dumas to ascertain whether approval for the development was given, by whom, and if so, whether the contractor is acting in compliance with EMA guidelines. The MP said that one of the responsibilities of a contractor was the putting in place of temporary systems to ensure no mess,  no drainage problems, and no incovenience to residents. “This project is clearly not in compliance with that,”  he observed. Meanwhile residents on both sides of St Lucien Road, in both the constituencies of Imbert and of Diego Martin Central MP, Ken Valley, who was yesterday out of the country, have been complaining for months to the contractor about the blocking of their roads by the heavy equipment, to no avail. This newspaper also carried a page ten photograph approximately two months ago by News Editor, John Babb, entitled “Degradation of our hills,” which showed the environmental carnage taking place on St Lucien Road, yet no response or investigation was forthcoming from either the Diego Martin Regional Corporation, or from the EMA. Residents have also repeatedly complained to the foreman and workmen about the possible damage to their houses from the heavy equipment, and about the blocking of the roads. They have expressed deep concern about mudslides during the rainy season. They also had to ask the truck drivers from Ian Ramdeen and Co, hired for the construction job, to remove their trucks from in front of their houses, and from on top of their front sidewalk lawns. Such requests have inevitably resulted in abuse from the drivers.

Residents have also appealed to Ian Ramdeen himself about his drivers, yet the trucks continue to enter private roads without permission, park on public roadways, and block entrances to people’s streets and garages. Last Friday night, because of the trucks and bulldozers on St Lucien Road, traffic was backed up from the Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet on Sierra Leone Road to the Wendy Fitzwilliams Boulevard, making it impossible for residents to reach their homes. Some living in private side roads could not enter their streets because the trucks were blocking the entrances. Many, too disgusted to take more of the wait, opted to park their cars and walk home. On one occasion last month, as one of the bulldozers was trying to get into the narrow access road, its arm was caught in a telephone wire. Residents had to call out to the driver to stop or their telephone service would have been knocked out. Again, their words of warning were met with abuse. Residents have also complained that work starts very early everyday, including Sundays, finishing late at night and that the noise of the trucks and bulldozers is unbearable. They are also concerned about landslides, as the rainy season is now here. Yesterday, several said they were now prepared to take legal action against the contractor if the EMA, their MPs and the Diego Martin Regional  Corporation failed to put an end to their daily suffering. Some said they were already in contact with their lawyers. In addition, yesterday, West End police noted that it is against the law for anyone to cause an obstruction of the free flow of traffic on any public roadway. The police also said that it is illegal to use sidewalks to park any vehicles if no permission is granted by the owners of the houses and that such acts are tantamount to trespass. Attempts to contact the contractor proved futile.