Some residents of the Chippingham community in New Providence reacted with outrage on Tuesday when a tractor started clearing 20 acres of land near Perpall Tract that the Ministry of Housing plans to use for a new subdivision and a public golf course.
It led to government officials deciding to halt the work.
The residents said the land, which the Ministry acquired from the Water and Sewerage Corporation, is environmentally-sensitive property and no building should take place on it.
The land in question is located on Columbus Drive between St. Alban’s Drive and Smith Street.
The portion that was being cleared on Tuesday is directly behind the Bahamas Association for Social Health (BASH) compound. BASH uses a portion of the land for a nature trail.
The tractor destroyed a significant portion of the trail.
Terry Miller, executive director of BASH, was among those upset by the Ministry’s plan to build 74 houses on the land.
Mr. Miller said officials did not consult residents on their plan.
“Residents woke up to tractors cutting,” he said. “I understand the minister’s zeal in building houses. It is a very important project because homes must be built, but we must use the environmental institutions that are in place.”
Minister of Housing Shane Gibson said the government wants to develop its land and does not see why it needs to hold a town meeting for that.
He said officials of the Water and Sewerage Corporation were prepared to sell the land because the well fields will be phased out when the corporation switches over to a new reverse osmosis system.
“The government agreed in principle that we can move ahead in building and allocating 20 acres of the 203 acres for affordable housing and the balance of the land would be used for the possible site of a golf course,” Minister Gibson said.
“We are looking at creating a golf course that is owned or partially owned by the government and perhaps the [golf] federation and local golfers.
“Of course when we got there objections were raised by some persons who said that they were residents of the area and also by Mr. Miller representing BASH. If every resident in every community objects to government developing their land, then how would we have future development?”
According to Mr. Miller the area consists of the most diverse plant life on the island and is very important to the ecosystem of the island.
He said the area provides a sanctuary for various types of birds that require protection.
“We need as many people as possible in this community who are concerned about these ecosystems to come and support us. We really need support,” Mr. Miller said.
“We need The [Bahamas] National Trust, the Nature Conservancy, and Bahamas Environment Science and Technology Commission (BEST). We need all those institutions and individuals who are concerned about the future of conservancy in this country.”
Minister Gibson said for now the clearing of the land has been halted and officials of BEST have been asked to conduct an analysis of the area to determine whether the land is in fact an environmentally sensitive area.
“We heard their concerns and so we agreed that we would tell the tractors to stop until we would have taken advice from the BEST Commission,” Minister Gibson said. “We will err on the side of caution.”
By: Stephen Gay, The Bahama Journal
