RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Hous­ing Min­is­ter David Lee has launched an im­me­di­ate in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to al­le­ga­tions of mis­use of a Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) com­pound at Cy­press Hills, San Fer­nan­do, while Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Hous­ing Phillip Ed­ward Alexan­der has or­dered the re­moval of struc­tures erect­ed on a com­mu­nal green space fol­low­ing com­plaints from res­i­dents.

The ac­tion came af­ter ten­ants said a po­lice of­fi­cer liv­ing at the com­pound had tak­en con­trol of parts of the car park and a green area for com­mer­cial and pri­vate use, pre­vent­ing res­i­dents—par­tic­u­lar­ly chil­dren—from ac­cess­ing the space. As Min­is­ter Lee ini­ti­at­ed the probe, per­son­nel from the HDC South Di­vi­sion were dis­patched to the Mag­no­lia Dri­ve com­pound, and Alexan­der met res­i­dents and viewed the sit­u­a­tion first­hand.

“We came here af­ter hear­ing that a po­lice of­fi­cer claimed a green space as his own and was pre­vent­ing oth­er res­i­dents from us­ing it,” Alexan­der said dur­ing his vis­it.

“Min­is­ter Lee asked me to re­spond im­me­di­ate­ly, and af­ter see­ing this for my­self, we are all in agree­ment that this mat­ter must be ad­dressed.”

Alexan­der said he con­sult­ed with HDC chair­man Fer­oz Khan and con­firmed the is­sue has been re­ferred to the min­istry’s se­cu­ri­ty de­part­ment, with in­struc­tions for the im­me­di­ate re­moval of the struc­tures on the green space.

“This space is to be re­claimed for the use of all res­i­dents,” Alexan­der said.

“Very short­ly, se­cu­ri­ty and work­ers will come and re­move what is here and cart it away. The res­i­dents will once again have full use of their fa­cil­i­ties.”

Res­i­dents from build­ings one, two and three had com­plained that sec­tions of the car park were be­ing used for a pri­vate gym op­er­at­ing dai­ly from 3-10 pm, where per­sons were al­leged­ly charged $40 per ses­sion, along with a week­end car wash that brought non-res­i­dents in­to the com­pound. They said the in­creased traf­fic made the area un­safe for chil­dren and dis­rupt­ed what was once a peace­ful com­mu­ni­ty.

Res­i­dents’ Ac­tion Com­mit­tee pres­i­dent Tra­cy-Ann Gomez said res­i­dents had been writ­ing to the HDC since Oc­to­ber with lit­tle re­sponse un­til now.

“This is the first time we are see­ing ac­tion,” Gomez said.

“We just want our space back and for our chil­dren to be safe.”

Ad­dress­ing the wider is­sue of com­mer­cial ac­tiv­i­ty on HDC prop­er­ty, Alexan­der said such con­duct would not be tol­er­at­ed.

“No one is sup­posed to take it up­on them­selves to op­er­ate busi­ness­es on HDC prop­er­ty,” he said.

“Our poli­cies are clear. All ten­ants and mort­gage hold­ers are to be treat­ed with re­spect, and all hous­ing projects must re­main for res­i­den­tial use.”

He added that res­i­dents found op­er­at­ing out­side the rules would be for­mal­ly warned and guid­ed back in­to law­ful oc­cu­pan­cy.

Con­tact­ed for com­ment, the po­lice of­fi­cer at the cen­tre of the com­plaints de­nied op­er­at­ing a gym or car wash and re­ject­ed claims that he had tak­en over the green space. He said ten­sions with res­i­dents arose be­cause he chose not to so­cialise with them.

De­scrib­ing him­self as an ath­lete, the of­fi­cer said he used his own re­sources to cut the grounds, in­stall light­ing and beau­ti­fy the com­pound.

He added that, hav­ing grown up in Mal­oney, he un­der­stood “build­ing life” and main­tained that the green space was for com­mu­nal use and not re­served ex­clu­sive­ly for his fam­i­ly.