THE residents of Wellington Glades, an upscale townhouse complex at the foot of Beverly Hills, say their homes and lives are now facing a new threat — rockslides from a housing development in the hills above them.

According to the residents, the developers have been blasting 17 acres of land in the hillside overlooking Wellington Glades with the intention to build 45 high-end residences.

But the blasting has loosened boulders and rocks and the removal of vegetation has made the area susceptible to flooding.

The home owners have therefore renewed their demands for urgent action from the National Housing Development (NHDC) to protect their homes, given that the state-run agency is a joint venture partner with the developers, Meridian Construction Company, in the new housing project.

DURING the flood rains of the past fortnight, residents of the Wellington Glades townhouse complex in St Andrew were particularly nervous.

Their homes are built at the foot of the northern face of the Long Mountain range and they feared that heavy boulders would come tumbling down onto their roofs or that the flood waters would come raging into their properties.

Which apparently happened, although not to the extent or with the devastating impact the residents have feared. But with the weather pattern remaining unstable and the on-set of the hurricane season, the Wellington Glades community is taking no chances.

The home owners have renewed their demands for urgent action from the National Housing Development (NHDC) to protect their homes.

“We want them to build a retaining wall between our homes and their housing site,” says Karlene Sinclair, the treasurer of the Wellington Glades Citizens’ Association. “This wall will protect us from the waters and rocks that have started coming down the mountain and affecting our homes.”

The NHDC is a joint venture partner with a firm called Meridian Construction Company, in a development of 17 acres of land in the hillsides overlooking Wellington Glades, where it is proposed that 45 high-end residences will be built. The project started in 2000.

The problem for the people of Wellington Glades is that in order for the development to be feasible, a road had to be cut through the hillside to the lots and that involved blasting, which, according to the citizens, exposed them to several environmental hazards.

Among the problems, they say, is that the blasting loosened boulders and rocks and the removal of vegetation made the area susceptible to flooding.

“They have disturbed the natural flow of water, so where it would just run off without affecting us, it now comes pouring down the mountainside and into our homes,” says Sinclair. “Once there is heavy rains … we start worrying… On one occasion it went right through one lady’s house and damaged her furniture.”

Telephone calls to Meridian for comment were not returned, and at the NHDC the Sunday Observer was told that the agency’s chief technical director of projects, Rosemarie Brown, was unauthorised to respond to media queries.

Only the president, Milverton Reynolds, officials said, could speak to the issue, but there was no response to messages left for him.

According to Wellington Glades residents, when the project was about to start they were advised that the construction phase would last nine months and that the blasting would go on for the first 16 weeks.

“The blasting has been going on for over a year although they have stopped right now,” says resident, Wayne Murray. “We don’t even know when it will start again.” Both Murray and Sinclair say that the blasting had caused cracks in their homes, especially the ceilings.

“Most of the 78 houses in Wellington Glades have a problem with the ceiling leaking whenever it rains,” according to Murray. “This was something that never used to happen before.”

Adds Sinclair: “The leaking area is similar for all the houses — it seems there is a breakage along the roof and the wall which causes the water to run down along the wall.”

During the earlier period of blasting, in which dynamite is used, residents in the general area had complained of small rocks flying through the air, posing a danger to people. In fact, the rocks reached as far as the Sts Peter and Paul Preparatory School, raising concern for the safety of the children.

At the time, officials from the mining and energy ministry intervened to ensure that the blasters used approved methods and there were suggestions that the original contractors for that segment of the job might be changed.

Since those early days, the Wellington Glades citizens have gone back and forth between the NHDC and other agencies to have their concerns addressed.

“We have written to them on many occasions,” explains Sinclair.

At a meeting held on January 24, 2000 between the developers and the Citizens’ Association, residents were told that adequate insurance coverage had been put in place to deal with any damage to the homes and that pre- and post-blasting surveys would be done on houses that could be affected.

But in a February 2000 letter to then NHDC president Dudley Shields, the residents objected to the development in the first place and made it clear that they were not interested in insurance compensation after damage had been done but rather in preventing any damage.

Notwithstanding the NHDC’s undertakings, residents claim, the post-blasting inspections have not taken place.

After the boulder damaged the old lady’s fence, says Sinclair, “persons came from the NHDC and looked at it and exclaimed about the size but nothing was done”.

But that, she says, is not the only big rock that has come down the hillside. There have been cases, she says, of boulders falling near to the basketball court and play areas.

“We face a real risk because this is where our children play,” explains Sinclair. “If any of them had been out there at that time they could have died if that huge rock had fallen on them.”

That concern had been raised with former water and housing minister, Dr Karl Blythe, who had ordered that the developers remove large rocks after blasting. This was not done, the residents say.

In fact, on the road being cut to the hillside lots, large, loose rocks were evident last week, perching precariously over the Wellington Glades homes.

“It is not nice to be in your bed at night sleeping and hear rocks rolling down the mountain,” says Sinclair. “It is a scary thought that it could be your house that it might land in.”