Prime Minister Gaston Browne said his administration intends to file a court order to remove at least five families still residing in Booby Alley in the Point, which is in his constituency.
The Booby Alley Redevelopment Project, a major initiative launched by Browne, has been stalled for several years as residents in the area protested any potential relocation.
The Prime Minister claimed that political operatives in the area have sought to undermine the housing project and that once the application has been filed in the court, it would take a week to be approved.
“I am saying to them now, my own constituents, I am doing this in the interest of the people and if these five members decide that they are not moving … we will get the court order, and the Ministry of Legal Affairs, if they have not filed already, they would be filing first thing [this] morning,” he said.
Meanwhile, during an interview with Observer weeks ago at a superyacht dock opening in the Falmouth Harbour Marina, Browne gave an update on the redevelopment project.
“My understanding is that they are going to tender now to select the contractor and that process is taking place in China.
“Whichever firm emerges as a contractor will come and do the design and technical work; after that it is completed, we will move into construction,” the Prime Minister stated at the time.
The Booby Alley Housing Project was announced in 2018 as part of a grant from the People’s Republic of China to construct 250 homes – 50 of which would have been in the Booby Alley area — but the project has faced several delays.
In 2018, the government first sought to compulsorily acquire lands in Booby Alley, where Browne was first quoted by Information Minister Melford Nicholas that “initial resistance is expected, but through a process of consultation he [expects] to sell the programme to the persons in the area who [will be] affected.”
However, resistance to the housing project has gone beyond the government’s initial assessment.
In 2019, in the midst of attempts to relocate the first family, a riot broke out at lower North Street after residents of the Villa and Point communities barricaded the street and started fires, which prompted the Prime Minister to visit the area in an attempt to restore calm.
They were standing in solidarity with their neighbour, Sharon Roberts, who they believed was being forced out of her home by the government.
Several months later, Roberts, announced that she was no longer prepared to resist the government’s requests, and her home was relocated to an area in Villa.
Then in 2020, the Parliament passed a motion to acquire seven parcels of privately owned land on Alfred Peters Street and in Booby Alley.
In 2021, Browne then proposed a land swap for people with vacant parcels of land in the St John’s City West constituency which would allow the government to build more temporary homes as part of the Booby Alley redevelopment programme.
Additionally, Minister of Public Works Lennox Weston also announced that construction work on the urban renewal project for the Booby Alley area was slated to begin in the first quarter of 2021.
Since then, some residents continued to hold out in defiance of the Prime Minister’s plan
In August 2022, at the signing of the Booby Alley Housing Projects Units Agreement between the governments of Antigua and Barbuda and the Peoples Republic of China, the Prime Minister again warned residents again to cooperate or face legal action.
He announced at the same signing that Barrymore Hotel on Fort Road was being refurbished to house the remaining Booby Alley residents.
SOURCE: Observer
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Mr. PM you really have patience with these people. In the end you know it’s all political. They are deracinated imbeciles fighting against something in their own best interest. Who would prefer to live in a dump of a ghetto with poor living conditions when you have an offer to get into a new house with all the proper facilities and hygiene? Some people stated on the tv that it was the first time in their life that that they had a shower and a bathroom in their own house. And don’t have to live like rats. When you know you are doing the right thing for the right reasons, you should trust in God and not concern yourself with any political fallout.
Ya can’t tap kiss batty?
When the ass you kiss get voted out, I want see you continue to kiss he batty.
Sideline, some people prefer to live honestly even if it means living with and like rats, rather than be like you an ‘ass-hole creeper’ calling poor people names like ‘deracinated imbeciles’ and ‘charlatans.’ You and your friend may have physically left the ghetto, but the ghetto is in your greedy soul forcing you both to steal the people’s lands and patrimony, trading it with the foreigners who do not look like us, and banking the theft in Bitcoin on the FTX exchange! Wet you hand an wait for the SEC!
HAVE RESPECT (to the point). Now you are free to call your children and your parents deranciated imbeciles, but NOT the people of Boobie Alley
And when the come to move u off the sideline to make room for the next world economic Forum project hope y will be happy
Democracy means majority rules. Some people seem to forget that principle. They cannot live in a democracy. Only if they are part of the majority.
Well, a minority cannot stop an entire development that the majority has given approval for.
@From The Sideline what the hell you know about democracy? You only know about batty kissing.
To those persons in Booby Alley take my humble advice….. Raise yr standard & raise it bodly, answer now to duty’s call. Always remember that there are always consequences to one’s action.
You want vote for a dictator. Now your dictator throw you out your home and land, you go still vote for the POS? Ya get what you vote for. Tek dat. Well deserved. He nar look out for you. All he do is practice creative self enrichment.
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