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Premier and Area Representative for the St. Thomas constituency the Hon Joseph Parry addressing his constituents at a town hall meeting at the New Testament Church of God in Jessups Village. | CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (May 04. 2007) -- Premier and Area representative of the St. Thomas constituency the Hon. Joseph Parry, announced that the Nevis Island Administration would put a compensation scheme in place, to facilitate quick payments to persons whose property had been used for the construction or upgrade of roads on the island.
Mr. Parry made the disclosure on Wednesday May 02, 2007 in response to a question from the floor, during a town hall meeting at the Jessups New Testament Church. The meeting was convened ahead of the construction of the village road at Jessups, to alert them with issues connected to the road project.
"We hope to put in place a compensation system whereby the people could be paid quickly. The politicians will have to take on the responsibility and will seek to have the money available. To be fair to you, I cannot promise you that you will get it in a matter of a week or a month. It might take about three months, six months or it may take up to a year.
"We will seek to have the funds available to compensate the people as quickly as possible as soon as we finish this road and the Island Main Road because it is likely, we will be starting the Hanleys Road and the road through Westbury to Camps and we would not want to be owing all these persons because what we will have on our hands is a bunch of disgruntled persons in every parish. So we will seek to avoid that by trying to compensate people quickly," he said.
The Area representative said in his assessment, compensation in the Jessups, Barns Ghaut area was not big and was a matter which could be dealt with in quick time.
The $15million Kuwait funded road project which entailed construction of a road network that linked Jessups Village, Barnes Ghaut, Cotton Ground to Five Turning would be completed. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Communications and Works Mr. Ernie Stapleton who accompanied Mr. Parry, said it had been anticipated by the contractors that the project would be completed by October 2007.
Nonetheless, he pointed to a number of issues that would affect the villagers of Jessups and called for their cooperation once construction works commenced. He explained that they would likely experience water shortages, power outages due to accidental broken water mains and the relocation of electrical poles and it would be necessary in some areas to encroach on private lands particularly as so many homes stood close to the existing road.
~~adz:left~~He said the villagers of Barns Ghaut had experienced similar disruptions but had been extremely cooperative. Mr. Stapleton called on the villagers of Jessups do the same and to be as understanding as the other affected villagers had been.
He also gave the assurance that the issue of drainage would receive critical attention during the project since a number of natural water ways had been blocked or diverted as a result of indiscriminate construction.
He explained that in some areas construction had forced the excess water on to the main village road during heavy rains. He said in recent times, the problem had increased but the Ministry had become aware of the matter and had planned to re- establish some of the water courses in an effort to avoid the volume of water that came through the village.
The meeting was chaired by Mr. Ashley Farrell Cabinet Secretary. Also in attendance was Mr. Denzil Stanley Director of Public Works on Nevis.
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