THE Urban Development Corporation (UDC) has blocked vehicular access to its beach-front property at Half Moon Bay in Hellshire, St Catherine and has told illegal occupants to vacate the property immediately.

In a statement to the press Monday, the UDC said it had issued eviction notices to 35 persons occupying the area from Seaforth to the mangroves, adjacent the pumping station at Half Moon Bay. The notice was for a period of 30 days.

In response, several vendors have been removing their structures, but the agency noted that some squatters continued to occupy the area which fell outside of the 10-acre site which was being held for the Half Moon Bay Fishermen’s Co-op by the commissioner of lands.

The UDC and the Half Moon Bay Fishermen’s Co-op have had contentious and prolonged negotiations over the control and use of a section of the Half Moon Bay Beach property, which was earmarked for fishermen under the Michael Manley administration of the 1970s.

In May last year, the co-op opted for tenure of the 10 acres of land rather than to participate in the proposed UDC development. That proposal had included a 94-unit housing development at Hellshire Park Estate, a fishing complex and a recreational beach park at Half Moon Bay.

With the fishermen opting to go it on their own, the houses were subsequently offered on the open market by the National Housing Trust.

Eighteen months ago, the UDC demolished illegal structures on its property at Half Moon Bay, resulting in protests by affected persons. Within days of the demolition, the vendors moved back on to the property.

This time around, the UDC changed its tact and has erected bollards along the access points to the beach from the main road to prevent “uncontrolled access”, while taking a less confrontational approach to dislodging the squatters.

Government has adopted a more humane and transparent approach to removing squatters following a violent flare-up in June last year when the UDC demolished houses owned by squatters on the Roaring River property in St Ann during a pre-dawn raid.

The situation severely embarrassed Prime Minister P J Patterson, who has portfolio responsibility for the UDC. And, consequently, he ordered state agencies in the housing sector to develop a method to handle the removal of squatters from state-owned lands.