St. Paul MP calls out land developers

Member of Parliament for St Paul EP Chet Greene has called out private developers on a practice which he deems concerning and unacceptable.

During his radio programme recently, Greene says it is time that government take private land developers to task for failure to ensure that the necessary infrastructure is in place before selling land.

He said he was invited to a meeting recently by a group of individuals from the Evergreen Tree area, in St. Paul who were complaining about their water situation.

“Not only they’re not getting water, but they do not have government water in the area. And I flag it because it is something that is happening in this country too often, and we need to hold private developers accountable like we hold government accountable.

He said the homeowners purchased the land from a private developer who under law should have put in infrastructure.

“Maybe government is to be blamed in part because we should not allow any sale of lands to take place without these things happening,” Greene says.

He adds that the government has a system of putting roads in some areas, and water up to a point, but the more recently built homes do not have water.

The MP says the Antigua Public Utilities Authority has assessed the costs to bring water to the area and it is approximately $10,000.

He says the homeowners are now asking the government to assist them in meeting that cost.

We came to an agreement on how that can be done. In some instances, people blame government for these things,” Greene added.

“When you want to buy land to build a house, you accept anything. It’s only after they get the land and build a house you realize, hey, I have these problems. I have no road, I have no light, I have no water,” he concluded