Minister of Works and Family Island Affairs, the Hon. Clay Sweeting has reaffirmed the government’s commitment to ridding the country of unregulated communities.
Minister Sweeting provided an update on shanty town demolitions while hosting a press event this week. He said, “we have already served notices in Andros, as of late, Montgomery in New Providence, off of Fire Trail Road as well, as well as Russell Island in Eleuthera. We’re finalizing the tender process for some of these communities and I think in Russell Island I think the notice was provided until October to ensure that they remove whatever they have there.”
Sweeting noted that the twenty eight day eviction notices do not indicate the time of demolition but is required by law. He also stated that help is available to the occupants of these communities. “Social services does help with Bahamian citizens and with permanent residents. We understand that this is a process. There’s more than just knocking down structures, right. We have to get proper assessment of who lives there, because people do live in these communities even though they were build illegally they were built without approvals, people do live in these communities. So we have to ensure that proper data is collected.”
According to the minister the information sought includes the amount of Bahamians, permanent residents, permit holders and illegals so that the relevant government agencies deal with the portion of the process.
