PETERSFIELD, Westmoreland — Davian Hopwood, the woman whose house in Petersfield, Westmoreland is being constructed by the People’s National Party (PNP’s) OT Fairclough Trust Fund and for which a stop order was placed recently, said the construction of the house without a building plan was not intentional.

“I hope the people at the parish council who are in charge will have mercy. It is just a little house. I started it. Mr Golding wasn’t the one who started it. I was just starting a little thing there at the back … but he came and said that he is going to give me something better and I appreciate it. It is not like we went ahead and started it without a plan; it was already there. It’s just a little conversion to build something better,” Hopewell told the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday

The construction of the house forms part of PNP President Mark Golding’s promise, during a hard-fought bid last year to lead the party, to assist party workers who have fallen on hard times.

Hopwood, who does hair braiding to earn a living, started constructing her house five years ago but was unable to complete it.

On Saturday, May 29, Golding led a block-laying exercise for the house. However, a stop order was later placed on the house by the PNP-controlled Westmoreland Municipal Corporation following an investigation by the corporation’s building officer after it was revealed that the house was being constructed without a building plan.

Hopwood, a party activist since 1997 who lost her mother at the age of 11 and has been living with her grandmother since with her five children, said she is hoping for mercy from the municipal corporation.

Hopwood said she is disappointed with the turn of events as she was anxious for the house to be completed.

“I am not feeling too good about it because I wanted it and I was so glad that he [Golding] came,” stated Hopwood.

Meanwhile, chairman of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation and Mayor of Savanna-la-Mar Bertel Moore has disclosed that the corporation is now in possession of a building plan for the house. He said the remaining thing to do is for Hopwood to make an application to the corporation, following which the corporation is expected to give an approval, once all is in place by September.

“The plans as far as I know are now drawn and completed printing and [are] now being prepared to come to the corporation for approval. So, by the next planning meeting, they should be approved. We on break for the month of August, so it should be September. But I can assure you that nothing will take place until the plans are approved,” Mayor Moore told the media on Wednesday.

“They are here but the application has not been done as yet. But, they are here,” the mayor emphasised when asked by the Observer for further clarity.

Besides, when asked, the mayor explained that Hopwood is the one who will be making the application and pay the building fee.

The mayor also emphasised that it is within his right to waive or reduce the building fee if requested to do so.

And, in an interesting turn of events, there was a bit of tension following a Physical Planning, Environment and Development committee meeting held on Wednesday. The vexed disagreement is a spin-off from the meeting held minutes before in which the councillor for the North Savanna-la-Mar division suggested that there were two houses being constructed in the division represented by the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) councillor for the Cornwall Mountain division, Dawnette Foster, who herself last month had questioned if a building plan was submitted for Hopwood’s house.

“In my estimation, just as how the other councillor (councillor Foster) asked for an investigation into that house (Hopwood), councillor Thomas has all the right to ask for an investigation into these two other houses. So, I don’t see why it (discussion) had to explode like that because if I ask for something, you can ask for something too. So, I don’t see the reason for her (councillor Foster) to explode like that,” argued Mayor Moore.