Greenvale buck passing

A MONTH’S worth of rainfall fell in three days and many residents in Greenvale, La Horquetta lost all their possessions two weeks ago, but who built over 500 homes in a flood-prone area?

That continues to be the hot question.

Depending on who is asked, the answer is the People’s National Movement or the People’s Partnership.

In a telephone interview on CNC3’s Morning Brew yesterday, Planning Minister Camille Robinson-Regis said approvals for construction in the area were denied from as far back as 2000, while former housing minister Dr Roodal Moonilal said it was constructed during the Patrick Manning PNM era when PM Dr Keith Rowley was housing minister.

Robinson-Regis said: “Our files indicate the following: there was an application in 2000 and a refusal by Town and Country for the following reasons: the site falls in an area designated for agriculture; the site falls in the flood plains of the Caroni River and is subject to flooding;he draft East-West Corridor land-use plan designated it for open space.”

She added that in 2000, the National Housing Authority, now the Housing Development Corporation (HDC), wrote to the Ministry of Planning asking for more information on the site and was told it had been allocated for agricultural use and residential development was not recommended.

Three years later, a request was made for state housing to be built in the area and approval was denied.

In August 2006 a fresh proposal was once again refused, as the site was marked as a conservation area and was in a flood plain and no development was permitted.

She added that the Ministry of Works and Transport (MOWT) also wrote to the housing agency informing it the site was not suitable for houses. While all these applications were being made, Rowley was housing minister. She added that in 2011 again the MOWT said the area was not fit for housing after yet another application. and in 2013 another application was made and later withdrawn.

One year later. another application was made and this time it was approved byTown and Country and the site was granted permission in 2014.

“So all along it had not been approved, and in 2014 it was granted permission. I will indicate that there were a number of designs put forward but there was no approval until 2014 under the last administration” Robinson-Regis said.

The timeline given by Robinson-Regis revealed that the first application was made under UNC housing minister John Humphrey. From 2001 to 2003, Rowley was housing minister, when the second application was made. In 2006, when a third application was made, Rowley was still housing minister.

In 2011, the minister of housing was Moonilal, who remained housing minister until 2015. It was under him that approval was given to according to Robinson-Regis, to have the flood-prone agriculture-assigned site used for housing.

In a telephone interview, Moonilal told Newsday that by 2010, when the People’s Partnership came to power, the houses were already built and all that was done under his tenure was to mitigate flooding by building retention ponds and installing a pump to drain the water off faster. Contrary to what Robinson-Regis said: “The first approval was made at a board meeting in 2005,” Moonilal said in a WhatsApp message. “No Town and Country planning, because, shamefully, the PNM then built everything without planning permission. Board meeting chaired by Andre Monteil.

“All the houses/buildings were already constructed by 2010 when government changed. Greenvale, Robinson Regis giving impression it was PP government. This is a pure PNM project.”

He added that t Greenvale cost $200 million and was constructed without the necessary approvals. Moonilal added that while there may have been flooding in the area before, it was not the roof-high water of October 19.

Last Friday, Greenvale residents began receiving cheques from the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services. Homeowners with children received $20,000 and those without received $15,000.

Rowley said he spoke with the HDC about deferring payments due from affected residents until the end of January and to financial institutions to do the same.