THE EDITOR, Madam:
PLEASE ALLOW some space in your newspaper to address the KSAC stance taken at their council meeting as to suggest relocation of Eastwood Park Gardens residents which came to our attention via the print media.
We are disappointed that the KSAC has taken a stand-off approach. We are left to interpret this as a blatant lack of regard for the law-abiding citizens of Eastwood Park Gardens. Should we take it that at long last the KSAC is finally "coming-out" with their intention.
We feel especially cheated since at the December 14, 1999 meeting of the KSAC Council a resolution stating our concerns for the Council's indolence in exercising their responsibilities as it relates to Town & Country Planning Act was tabled and carried. After all that, the Council now chooses to capriciously suggest relocation of the residents, disregarding the efforts and struggles over many years to retain the residential status of the community before it was anywhere near its current state.
The residents of Eastwood Park Gardens would now appear foolhardy to have invested their time and effort in demonstrating some faith in having taken what was presumed the proper approach in using the system provided by law in taking the matter of non-conforming uses through the natural processes rather than by the blocking of roads and burning tyres or other extortion measures. Over different terms of government, we have had meetings with the various agencies, who are "players" in town and country planning as well as Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, as a result of which he asked that a Task Force on Non-Conforming Uses of Land be formulated to review the Town & Country Planning Act which resulted in the Amendments of the Act, gazetted in March 1999.
Our MP asked on more than one occasion that if one or more breaches were to be put before the court towards a successful conclusion then that would serve as an effective deterrent, yet the KSAC has been lethargic with taking matters to Court.
Have the residents of Eastwood Park Gardens been reclassified as squatters? Our observation is that even in cases where isolated disasters have occurred, the nearby residents have only been evacuated but not relocated? Even squatters are given direct notice rather than a general notice via the newspapers. What then if we should not heed the warning? Will the citizens of Eastwood Park Gardens be used as a guinea pig for enforcement under the Trespass Act or would enforcement of any other Act apply?
How is it that other Parish Councils can be effective to their beneficiaries while the KSAC has a chronic case of inertia? Why is the KSAC promulgating organised chaos? How many more "commercial graveyards of urban decay will it take before we all wake up? Is the suggestion of relocation a desperate attempt to force us to just shut up and ship out? We will not be silenced and we will not roll over and die.
It would appear that everyone is busy sending clear messages and signals. How could anyone even contemplate "relocating" residents who have bought and paid for their homes in favour of those who have contravened the law? Is it that a signal that non-conforming use of residential properties is to be congratulated and rewarded? The message being sent is a mockery of the Town and Country Planning Act (T&CP) and tantamount to a travesty of justice.
I am, etc.,
M. HYDE
Eastwood Park Gardens
Citizens Association
P.O. Box 511
Kingston 10
