PRIME Minister Andrew Holness, apparently stung by harsh criticism of the Government’s demolition on Thursday of squatter houses in Clifton, St Catherine, journeyed to the community Friday and, in an obvious attempt at damage control, told people affected by the action that the Government was moving to regularise occupation of the lands.

“We shall come back in a few weeks’ time to actually distribute your titles. I am going to be talking to the Sugar Corporation of Jamaica [SCJ] in the short term to get your main road improved. This is a community that the Government of Jamaica has acknowledged as a legitimate community to be properly regularised, so you have nothing to fear,” Holness said.

“I am a builder, so I don’t like to tear down things. All I have been telling people to do is to build, build, but we cannot build illegally. This community is about to experience a transformation. We have put in place a master plan that is going to bring 15,000 houses into this area — not for rich people,” he added.

On Wednesday in Parliament, Holness announced that an illegal settlement sponsored by a criminal gang had been developed in Clifton and firmly stated that it will not be allowed to stand. He stated that the structures would be demolished, starting Thursday morning, and that the lands, which are part of the Government’s Greater Bernard Lodge development plan, will be regularised and legitimate owners provided with titles.

The demolition began Thursday morning but sparked outrage, even as some of the affected residents admitted that the manner in which they acquired the property on which they had started building houses had not been legitimate.

On Friday, during his visit, Holness, noting that there were no records of the purchases. He told the residents, “We need to know who you paid. We want to be able to assist, but if we are going to assist we need to have clean hands coming to the table.”

Holness was joined by Member of Parliament Fitz Jackson, in whose St Catherine Southern constituency the affected area is located.

Noting that the demolition will be discontinued for now, Jackson said, “The dialogue continues with the SCJ to establish in one, two, three ways, what is going to be done in respect of those houses that have already been demolished, those houses that have started construction, and those lots that were allotted but there is no construction yet. All of those will be addressed.”

Meanwhile, Holness sought to assure the residents that they would not be abandoned by the Government.

“There are some lands that we have made available to ensure that the houses on those lands are affordable and those lands are going to be developed by the Housing Agency [of Jamaica] and the National Housing Trust. You are going to have options to acquire the lands itself, a starter unit or a full unit. Presently, we have been modelling our target prices to the prices that we have been giving in Catherine Estates and those units are about $6.5 million average,” he said.