La Brea residents in demonstration for jobs and relocation

LAUREL V WILLIAMS

ARMED WITH placards, La Brea residents gathered at the entrance of the Caribbean Gas Chemical Ltd (CGCL) plant at the Union Industrial Estate yesterday.Some of the residents called for immediate relocations and others for jobs at the plant.

Residents of Square Deal Corner, which is located next to the plant, said that they were living in the buffer zone. As such, many residents were relocated with the promise that each family would eventually be relocated.

One of the affected residents, Avion Joseph, said the “relocation battle” began some 17 years ago during which period no major repairs were done to their homes.

“Back then, the authorities were planning to build the smelter plant. So, they started to relocate residents and up to late last year they were relocating people. Why stop now? We want to be related too. Right now, there are about 17 houses remaining,” Joseph said.

CGCL is a joint venture enterprise led by the consortium of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company Inc, Mitsubishi Corporation and local conglomerate Massy Holdings Ltd. According to CGCL’s official website (cgcltt.com), it is a locally registered and operated company formed to oversee the project development stage of the proposed Natural Gas to Petrochemicals Complex at the estate.

The site was previously earmarked to house the smelter plant project which was subsequently shelved following the 2010 general election.

She added that since residents were designated for relocation, no infrastructural were done. Joseph added: “The street lights not working, the empty lots overgrown with bushes and our homes are dilapidated. We could have completed our homes years ago but they told us we were relocating.”

Joseph noted that officials promised to meet with residents on December 20. However, they want to meet at an earlier date.

On the issue of employment, some residents complained about a lack of representation from the La Brea community in the Labour Office, which is tasked with securing employment for the plant.

Roger Sylvester, of Bassa Hill, said on many occasions residents attempted to meet with officials to discuss this issue.

“We want a liaison person from La Brea to make sure everything is working right for us. We have qualified people living here. We are here to highlight the issues and we will be here until something is done,” Sylvester told Newsday.

For the past few days, residents have been gathering at the entranceof the petrochemicals complex hoping to resolve the issues.

All calls to CGCL for comments on the issue went unanswered.