Knock them down!
PORT MARIA, St Mary — St Mary Municipal Corporation Chairman Councillor Richard Creary has instructed his team to start demolishing illegal buildings at an early stage of construction, instead of merely serving notices on the owners.
“The new policy of the St Mary Municipal Corporation is that, once we see foundation dig and batter board put up, it is demolition time… That is the action you need to take going forward,” he told the corporation’s Enforcement Supervisor Stanley Davis as well as its Acting Director of Planing Alphus Gordon.
Creary gave the order during last Thursday’s monthly meeting of the corporation after being informed about notices being served for illegal construction at Bell Hill and Liberty Castle.
“I would love to hear some more reports coming in saying, ‘We visited and we noticed these illegal constructions, and they were demolished.’ Let’s not clog the court system since we have the authority to do [demolition],” Creary insisted.
He lamented that it takes months to get building-related matters before the court.
“If you demolish them then you won’t need to go to the court,” Creary told the officers. “Once the buildings are in the early stages of construction, I want the demolitions to take place.”