Town planning authorities are reporting a resolution to the impasse with prominent waste hauler Anderson Cherry over operations at his recycling facility at Lower Estate quarry in St George.
Deputy Chief Town Planner Rudy Headley said Thursday that while it appears the owner and the operator of the land are complying with the department’s most recent stop order, activities at the site will be subjected to constant monitoring.
The department had served enforcement and stop notices on both parties, claiming the use of the land had been changed without its permission.
The action, taken under the Town and Country Planning Act, Cap. 240, saw Denzil Power & Sons being served as the property owner and Jose & Jose Group of Companies, owned by Cherry, being served as the occupier.
“We had issued an enforcement and stop notice on September 1. They were revoked on the basis of a technicality. So we served a revocation letter on September 6. On that same date, September 6, we issued a new enforcement notice and stop notice. These were served both on the operator and the land owner,” Headley told Barbados TODAY Thursday.
“We have been monitoring and thus far, it appears as if there is compliance with the stop notice. The enforcement notice takes effect after 28 days. However, if we serve a stop notice in the meantime, that means he should stop; and it appears as though there has been compliance with the stop notice thus far,” he added.
When contacted tonight, Cherry said he was not in a position to give an update because he had just returned from overseas and would have to be apprised by his team tomorrow.
“But I did my part. I did what I was supposed to do. They asked that I demobilize. I demobilized. They asked that you stop mining. I stopped mining. So I follow all the instructions. I would be better able to advise and see where everybody is at tomorrow,” the well-known businessman told Barbados TODAY.
The Chief Town Planner had concluded that the mining and quarrying taking place on the property bordering a landfill where periodic smoldering has been an irritant to neighbours, were occurring without the necessary permission of his office.
The notice ordered the entities to cease using any part of the land for mining and quarry purposes, for storage in connection with the said development and to remove from the land all vehicles, equipment, machinery and materials brought onto the land for the purposes of that use and to restore the land to its condition before the breach took place.
The waste hauler recently said he would allow the court to determine if he was breaking the law.
In 2019, Magistrate Douglas Frederick found the businessman guilty of violating zoning laws by using his quarry near the island’s main water table as a dump.
The magistrate ruled that Cherry’s company, Project Recycling Limited, changed the use of its land at the Lower Estate Quarry, St George – originally zoned for mining – for solid waste disposal between November 10 and December 15, 2015 without the required planning permission.
(emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)
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