QUARRYING AGAIN ON SANDO HILL

The residents contacted the EMA yesterday and were advised by an official of the State agency to write a letter. The excavation of a certain part of the San Fernando Hill began recently, Newsday was told.

Residents told Newsday that the clearing of certain parts of the hill was being done to facilitate the construction of a house.

Quarrying of the hill was stopped altogether several years ago after Friends of the San Fernando Hill petitioned the Government to have the hill preserved.

Newsday was informed that about two weeks ago, the San Fernando City Corporation received a letter from the Ministry of Energy, requesting that a licence be granted for the carrying out of the excavation works.

Hart Street residents yesterday questioned why excavation works should be allowed on the hill, which is a national landmark.

Yesterday when Newsday visited the excavated site, a backhoe was parked next to a large heap of excavated gravel. A man leaving the area in a pickup van, declined to reveal on whose behalf the work was being done.

However, the man told Newsday that the persons had proper documentation to conduct the excavation on the site.

A Hart Street resident told Newsday that she and other residents intend to take the matter to the authorities. “I don’t think what they are doing to ‘the hill is legal,” the resident complained.

She added that since the excavation restarted last week, the noise and dust from the excavators and trucks removing the sand and gravel in the street, had become unbearable.