From left, Buchanan, McKenzie and Espeut
Trudy Simpson, Freelance Writer
HOUSING MINISTER, Donald Buchanan, is refuting claims made by environmentalist Peter Espeut and some Parish Councils, that lives are put at risk and Parish Councils are being undermined by the existence of certain housing laws. One such law is the Housing Act of 1969, which allows some agencies and officials to bypass the Parish Councils' building approval process.
Speaking with The Sunday Gleaner on Monday, Minister Buchanan, who has wide-ranging housing-related powers under the Act, said while the Housing Act gives him powers such as being able to declare that an area can be upgraded or improved, this is usually done within the law. He said the Ministry has a technical joint venture unit which does "due diligence before we agree to any of these developments."
He said that during his tenure, which began on April 2002, "in every single instance of the joint venture, separate and apart from my declaring them under the Housing Act, which gives me administrative accommodation, meaning that we try to assist them on getting these approval speedily and certain fees waived under an arrangement with the Ministry of Finance - every single project goes through all the other steps of approval including NEPA (National Environment and Planning Agency), the Parish Council, NWC (National Water Commission) and all of these regulations."
Just over a week ago, the group, among them Mr. Espeut and Mayor of Kingston, Desmond McKenzie, said the existence of these laws allow the Housing Minister and agencies like the National Housing Development Corporation (NHDC), the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and even some charity organisations such as Food for the Poor to bypass the Parish Council's building approval process by ordering construction and in some cases, allowing organisations to be exempt from fees associated with the process.
The Parish Councils and environmentalist said that one result of ignoring Parish Council approval is that there is often condoned construction of homes and businesses in environmentally sensitive areas and in areas not meant for construction such as Portland Cottage and Rocky Point in Clarendon and sections of Hellshire in St. Catherine. Some of these homes are not built strongly or are inappropriate for the locations, resulting in widespread destruction like that which happened in the wake of Hurricane Ivan, they said.
PUBLIC HEALTH HAZARD
But the Housing Minister defended the decision to put homes in some areas. He said in the case of Rocky Point, Govern-ment and Food for the Poor worked to improve conditions in some sections because people were already living in these areas and under conditions which posed a threat and otherwise left them vulnerable. Mr. Buchanan also insisted that Hurricane Ivan's impact would have been worse on residents if officials had not intervened.
But environmentalist Peter Espeut scoffed at this explanation.
"They can't get away with that. The same argument they give as to why they did it then is the same argument they could have used to remove the people. Just right now, with all this excitement about relocating people, they should have done that long ago. It's an excuse," Mr. Espeut said.
Mr. Buchanan also made it clear that Government was not considering the Association of Local Government Authorities' (ALGA) request that Govern-ment repeal the Housing Act to strengthen the effectiveness of the Parish Councils.
In 2003, Cabinet issued drafting instructions to amend the Housing Act so that the Minister remains responsible for issuing policy directions, while the power vested in the Corporation Sole is transferred to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Housing. This should avoid the danger of any blurring of powers, a Gleaner report said. Minister Buchanan said there was already a first draft of the amendment.
