“The Brittons Hill cave collapse changed the real estate market in Barbados forever – but it also empowered a select few to profit or limit their losses as they have access to government cave data that is not available to the vast majority of citizens.“
Barbados Real Estate Market Is Destabilized – Already Going Into Shock
Dear Prime Minister Arthur,
This letter is to notify you that government insiders are already in possession of, and are profiting from, government-owned cave maps, data and studies that are not available to ordinary Barbados homeowners.
As you know, the Government of Barbados has over the years collected extensive maps and other data on the various cave systems that are found throughout our island. Even more extensive cave mapping and studies have recently been commissioned by your government in the aftermath of the Brittons Hill apartment collapse that took the lives of five of the Codrington family.
Many of our homes and businesses are built over cave systems – some known and some yet to be discovered. Obviously, the value of some buildings and properties will plunge if existing or future studies and maps show caves and especially large or unstable caves below the buildings. Likewise, the value of properties located away from cave systems will rise.
All the cave maps and data gathered by the government has now become extremely valuable as people realise the tremendous impact that recent events are having upon real estate throughout our country. The Brittons Hill cave collapse changed the real estate market in Barbados forever – but it also empowered a select few to profit or limit their losses as they have access to government cave data that is not available to the vast majority of citizens.
The fact that some citizens have access to the cave data while most do not is tremendously destabilizing to our real estate market. Bajan real estate agents are already reporting the virtual cessation of real estate purchases by foreigners in only a week since the Brittons Hill cave collapse.
It has been reported to us by a credible source that the cave system under the disaster site at Brittons Crossroad extends to Highgate, Flagstaff and Banks Brewery. We also know that certain groups of insiders are already in possession of the government maps and data that show the extent, depth and stability factors associated with this cave system – and that these persons are making ready to dispose of their real estate holdings in the area while the vast majority of homeowners remain in the dark.
Mr. Prime Minister, the genie is already out of the bottle. The government cannot recall the cave data or know the identity of every person or business that is in a position to profit from the data and so victimize their fellow citizens. Similarly, the government cannot recall the cave data for other parts of the island or know the identity of every person or business that already has the data.
The only ethical and practical action that can now be taken by your government is to make all its existing cave maps, data and studies easily available to all – and then continue to make new data available immediately.
Barbados is about to enter a crisis of confidence in real estate – one that your government has not created, but one that it nonetheless has to manage.
Let the chips fall where they may. As the implications for Barbados real estate values become clearer in the next few weeks and months, it is unethical that only connected government insiders have the knowledge of the cave maps, data and studies.
Publish the cave maps now, Mr. Prime Minister – or witness a melt-down in both Bajan real estate and the credibility of you and your government.
Respectfully,
Barbados Free Press, and thousands of Bajan property owners.
Further Reading: Barbados Apartment Collapse – Cave Maps, Surveys, Memories, Government Records Become More Valuable Than Land Itself
35 Comments
September 4, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Another damning article from BFP. Keep exposing the corruption BFP. Have any government Ministers put any land up for sale lately?
September 4, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Is this O$A’s new plan for making housing affordable again?
Giving a whole new meaning to market stability.
September 4, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Barbados does not have a Freedom of Information Act, thus we have no way of forcing the government to release these cave maps. Bajan real estate has just become the largest gambling game in the country.
September 4, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Owen will never publish information that will run away investors. The studies will be completed and general statements made to suggest that the Brittons Hill incident was an isolated case and not likely to recur.
September 4, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Thanks B.F.P. Not only will it destabilize the real estate market but hasn’t it the potential to do the same to the economy! Foreign investors – will they come? Will the ones here leave?
For too long have the rich been able to demand more for the sale of land. Now you get less square footage but pay tens of thousands more dollars than the land is worth just to be able to own property! They limit the poor to under 5000 sq ft of land at $20.00 pr sq ft, so they keep us huddled together but they build on vast expanses of land. If one of the big folks had their homes cave in then what? Whole the scenario would have been different perhaps… We all need to know what we have invested in and if we can use it to build and feel safe. Hollow or solid ground – give us the maps!
September 4, 2007 at 2:20 pm
I somehow feel that we are being a voice in the wilderness when it comes to making appeals to this gang of corruption.
I can assure you that they will do the least that they need to do to satisfy the prying public but once this is done to hell with you.
The sincerity levels of this adminstraton is at an all time low, not sure what led it in that direction maybe the callous manner of their stealing and the boldness with which they set about carrying out their acts of greed but nevertheless they are masters of the art of stealing and not saying a single word to fight or defend it.
September 4, 2007 at 2:35 pm
BFP aka Deception Lies and Propaganda (DLP) when last I checked the Town and Country Planning Department was responsible for building permission in Barbados and all relevant information consisting the topography and other related matters resided with them not the Prime Minister Office.
Your letter about should therefore be addressed to the Chief Town Planner. If persons in Barbados have copies of maps showing where caves are located they could only have gotten them from the department that is responsible for them. I am a little lost as to how you can profit from having copies of cave maps and how can you bring about a shift in the real estate market. Please enlighten me.
You all so sick and mentally unstable that even when Mother Nature takes her toll you can still find grounds upon which to be political. I think you all should really be thanking God for his the mercies he continues to shower upon our country. From what I know about the rock upon which this country is fromed and its location in relation to the sea level we should be thanking God that we have not yet been washed away be the sea rather than the garbage that you spew daily.
********************************
BFP Comments
The Town Planner’s records would have been seized within 24 hours of the cave-in in any North American or European jurisdiction. But I suspect what you say is true – the records remain with the Town Planner’s office because there will be no real investigation of the Codrington deaths.
Also, please correct me if I am wrong, but is not Prime Minister Owen Arthur not the Minister in charge of planning, under whom the Town Planner works?
September 4, 2007 at 2:39 pm
corrections to last paragraph. It should read “thanking God for the mercies” and “upon which this country is formed”
September 4, 2007 at 2:43 pm
The truth is that 97% of most bldgs. in Barbados
are in no danger, cave or no cave underneath them.
In an established stable, already-built neighbourhood,
where no one is digging around next door,
the danger of collapse is negligible
- less than 1%, even with a cave under there.
But it sure makes us all think!
************************
BFP Comments
Please show us the government data that backs up what you are saying about no danger, etc…
Oh… I see. Only you as an insider are allowed to see the data. Send it here and we’ll publish it for all!
Thanks
September 4, 2007 at 2:47 pm
I was watching smiley boy on TV tha last night of his mini-series
and the guy has a real giggling fascination with the camera, breaking into smiles when he lays eyes on it.
It was kinda obvious,that last night, that he was working hard on keeping his eye OFF the camera, and thereby reducing personal mirth to a minimum.
a technique that worked reasonably well.
But clearly the sight of a lens brings him great joy.
———————
I suspect he was a happy well-loved child and his Mummy thought the sun shone outa his…
September 4, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Royal idiot who’s ministry does TCP fall under?
The Rt Hon Owing See thru Arthur so yes he is the one that questions should be asked of.
Remember the deal with the land at Holders the previous owner could not get it approved by TCP but the scamps bought it and shared the spoils with your PM and the land use was changed in the wink of an eye, now he overruled the chief TCP and did what he wanted to do for his money.
Sadly our last natrual disaster started nearly fifteen years ago and much to our amazement it continues to plague us daily it is called Owing the BLP and its gang of crooks, have you heard of this gang? I am sure 99.9 % of the population knows of them because these are the ones that this gang hurts daily.
********************
BFP message to Wishing In Vain
Have no idea why you are being dropped to moderate on each post. Your IP is not listed. I will call Clive and see what he can do.
george
September 4, 2007 at 3:05 pm
BFP message to Wishing In Vain
Have no idea why you are being dropped to moderate on each post. Your IP is not listed. I will call Clive and see what he can do.
george
September 4, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Thanks I was looking to see what harsh term that may have had me held up in moderation.
Thought that I was too harsh on Owing that was causing it !!!!
September 4, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Anon said
“The truth is that 97% of most bldgs. in Barbados
are in no danger, cave or no cave underneath them.”
Amazing then is it not that the government picked the only other cave on the island to build the NHC office complex over!
September 4, 2007 at 4:13 pm
What is under my house? What is under my children’s school? I have a GD RIGHT TO KNOW! I have double right to know if it is government information already available.
My children’s safety is all that matters to me. At my home or at their school I HAVE A GD RIGHT TO KNOW!
Never so p’d off in all my life.
September 4, 2007 at 4:15 pm
Lies and corruption from the government. Informaiton on the caves that WE PAID FOR. I am so pissed. I want to know what the government knows about my home. About where I work. About my children’s schools.
ARE THERE ANY CAVES UNDERNEATH MR. PRIME MINISTER? I have a GD RIGHT TO KNOW.
September 4, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Given Building practices in Barbados over the last 30 years, it makes sense to evaluate the possibility of caves under some areas of Barbados.
Most concrete block houses in Barbados were built without bore hole testing on the site.
Hopefully Barbados will get a Building code that specifies what must be done on a site on which Houses are to be constructed.
September 4, 2007 at 5:17 pm
You all think construction costs are high now and yet you want to add to them by insisting on bore hole testing?
Caveat emptor, in English means buyer beware, and has been the best purchasing guideline for a very, very long time. Look around, ask around, if there are no obvious caves nearby and the ground hasn’t moved in 30 years then it is probably safe for another 30 years.
If someone builds over a cave and another is foolish enough to buy or rent it without some awareness of the surroundings, should we be protecting them from their foolishness?
Life is a gamble and I suggest that one is likely to be at greater risk of dying from a car accident than from a cave-in here in Barbados. Why not stop driving too?
Oh, I forgot, some risks are worth taking if the price is right.
September 4, 2007 at 5:38 pm
Wishing Jackass In Vain yes as I understand it the PM is the Minister for TCP but he does not micro-manage the department. The Civil Service still runs the public service. The only matters that come before the Minister are those matters that require his decision and are referred to him by the applicant. Not every matter requires his attention.
In any event if you are suggesting that the minister should see every application submitted and that they should have his approval then clearly the DLP would have some serious questions to answer because I am certain when permission was granted to build those apartments in Brittons Hill on top of that cave the DLP was the government of the day. Did the Minister then not know that caves were there or was he so deeply engrossed in the scam with Phillip in selling cave-land at ridiculously high prices that he did not take note that he was inviting a catastrophe when he gave building permission?
September 4, 2007 at 5:53 pm
The only matters the PM micromanaged were his purchase of West Terrace, the change of water zones in Holders Hill so that Shorey et all could earn $9 million and the Planning Appeals brought to his attention at the Bush Bar on Friday nights … and paid for on the spot in hard US cash.
Want to challenge me on that Royalraper?
September 4, 2007 at 5:56 pm
It is amusing to me to hear that not all matters come before him but it just so happened that the one with the land at Holders just so happened to come to him my, my, my what a world we live in, my understanding of this matter is that he summoned the file to be brought to him for him to endorse his illegal action now if this is not an illegal act what is.
This is not to be taken in isolation as he overruled another gov’t department in approving the permission for St.Peters Bay development and look at the outcome of his wayward ways it has already started to cause major flooding is the area and why ?
Despite the decision by educated people in the ministry to not approve the permission because of exactly what has transpired the dishonest PM comes along and approves it for Bjerkhamn his provider of gifts.
September 4, 2007 at 6:00 pm
While on the subject why does he not use the same tarnished pen and sign the paper work that would change the area of land that the squattrs are on from zone 1 to usable land for housing?
Now that would be more beneficial to the poor people that vote for him but it would not yeild the $ 9 million to his bank account.
September 4, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Flyovers for Barbados…wooohoooo.
How exciting but wait……what if some of the supports are built on top of a cave?
I’ll keep that in mind next time I have to drive over gazillion potholes.
September 4, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Royal idiot
Honesty is not a product that two many of you from within the BLP are graced with, in your case I would doubt that you would know even how to spell the word.
Hold tight better days are coming and all will be well, but please I ask you and your bunch of crooks do not get crazy and go on anymore of a stealing spree you have raped this country’s treasury to the hilt already please for my childrens and their childrens sake leave the treasury alone now let it breath and recover for your malpractice and corruption and give it time to catch itself free from your rape of it.
September 4, 2007 at 6:14 pm
As you are on who are the shareholders and directors of the outfit 3 S and who is the local partner company for VECO in Barbados I would like to know the directors and shareholders of both of these companies, if you are a man and not a mouse and not a Mia reveal them to the public.
If you a too lowly a player to have this information as Owing to provide you with it I am sure for a free he will do anything even expose his partners in crime.
September 4, 2007 at 6:18 pm
Owen Arthur declared publicly on radio that he would personally decide whether there should be a water park on ABC highway at Graeme Hall and that he would override the decision of the Chief Town Planner if needs be.
To suggest he does not personally vet any TCP decision that concerns him is a baldfaced lie.
The fact that he can do this illegally because the required Advisory Committee does not exist does not concern him. As our elected Dictator he is above the law.
September 4, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Barbadians seeking to own or improve homes are being pinned down by a cleft stick.
On the one hand, the escalating cost of land, building materials, and labour makes it harder to build to the desired standard. Young married couples are likely to seek shortcuts just to get a roof over their heads.
On the other hand a Building Code legislating standards which further raise costs, is likely to be imposed in the near future which will include many new areas of expense.
It is quite reasonable for the authorities responsible, starting with Town & Country, to ensure that houses are built in an approved area where the risk of cave-ins does not exist. But it would be overkill in my opinion to demand that bore holes must be done at every building site to a depth of, say, 20 feet. Suck wells to more than that will usually ensure that the bedrock is safe for an upper storey building. Only those areas where subterranean caves or declivities are know to exist should be treated to tighter requirements.
Many people are unaware that Town & Country requires all new and existing buildings which are being modified to install substantial water storage facilities which can add a further $10,000 to $20,000 to the cost. How TCP arrived at the lavish water requirement goodness knows. The Chief Town Planner probably followed a metropolitan standard not necessarily relevant to Barbados. His word cannot be challenged, it seems, nor his arbitrary standards. And there are many more of them.
For instance no plan will be approved which calls for a basement. Basements are the safest place to go in a hurricane, where there is no risk of flooding, and they provide considerable additional space to a building without going up. Where did this decision come from? Is it an echo of the servants’ quarters below great houses?
And then there are the parking space requirements etc., etc.
Given the national priority for increased housing it seems unjust that nothing should be done to find ways of building houses with minimum additional expense. There should be a panel of level-headed citizens, not engineers or academics with an axe to grind, to examine, question and challenge building requirements which add to the cost of housing without an overriding justification such as health or safety.
Letting building professionals introduce higher and costly standards which will result in a more costly building, besides lining their pockets, is letting the foxes rule the fowl pen. They want their professional services to be a legal requirement. The housing shortage is at a crisis stage yet nothing along these lines is being done to alleviate the situation.
Instead cost is added to cost, and those without the prospect of buying a house or housing unit, get more desperate. Not good for social stability.
September 4, 2007 at 8:18 pm
ACCOUNTABILITY!
Do we want it? Yes or No.
Is it an unavoidable Act of God if an apparently substandard building built over a known cave collapses? We all must demand a full investigation, full disclosure and full accountability for those involved. The alternative is to wait for the next catastrophe to occur.
Unfortunately, the government, like most governments will try to first control and then contain the news. We must, as citizens, demand answers or live/die with the consequences.
September 4, 2007 at 9:46 pm
Before I never thought why our Barbados government doesn’t release information that is considered normal in other countries. I live in the USA and everything is open. We were interested in buying a small hobby farm in Vermont and discovered that the corner of the lot used to be a gas station and needed special environmental cleaning before it could be used again for crops or building. It was the law that we had to be notified of this fact before we purchased the farm. In Barbados we would have been victims.
September 4, 2007 at 10:00 pm
Hollow ground or solid under my home? Publish the maps now.
September 4, 2007 at 11:00 pm
Techniques&Headgames
That was a real hilerious piece on’smiley.’
On a more serious note Owen Arthur has a tremendous influence on TCP Department. He constantly interfers with the daily workings of that department especially when it comes to big investors.
RR,
You are such a DISHONEST idiot. I can tell you of a number of time the PM got involved in planning decisions……the Chief Town Planner has been told where the boundaries are.
You don’t have one shred of evidence which links anyone in the DLP with permission to build any apartments in Brittons Hill.
September 5, 2007 at 3:24 am
Royal Rumble:
Sad if you do.
Do you really believe what you write here?
September 5, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Wishing Jackass In Vain aka Thompson now that you are on the blog full time maybe you can answer a few questions. Firstly you must not believe that every one you meet is like you. Not every person is greedy and will do anything for money. There are honest people in this country who earned their living quite honestly.
TCP functions a lot differently today than when you and the DLP were in charged. TCP has much more autonomy over their department than at anytime under the last DLP band of crooks.
How do you explain a scenario where you during the weeks leading up to the election of 1994 used your office to grant clico fifteen (15) of this country’s finest pieces of real estate? You were then acting as the Chief Town Planner, advising yourself. Would the TCP have permitted the removal of such a large chunk of this country’s agricultural land for commercial development? This was made possible only because you overrode their decision. And for what?
You made more money in those transactions than all the amounts that you have accused the PM of. But that’s because you think that every body is like you – light-handed. You have the mindset and lifestyle of the white planter class so you would always feel that others around you are stealing because this is the only way you know how to live.
You acted as the legal advisor to clico and Government all at the same time in this wretched land deal that has earned you free of cost a posh legal office on the beach front. You now want to tell somebody about corruption? The very bed you were conceived was corrupt. Your whole life is corrupt and death is in no hurry to meet you for fear that you would corrupt that to.
You are a human derelict. For a whopping salary out of the treasury every month all you do is loiter around the Opposition office every day and spout a lot of lies and assertions on these trash blogs. You take good technology and use them to spew your nasty corrupt games. In short this is where you act out your blood sport. You are sick. You are trapped in an identity battle. You do not know if you are black or white, rich or poor. We know who we are and we are certainly not you. You have always cheapened every thing in life.
****************
BFP Comments
Hi RoyalRumble
We agree that there is virtually no difference between the corrupt activities of the former DLP government and the current BLP government – except perhaps in scale as a result of the long run the BLP has had to do as they wish.
Thompson’s silence on matters of corruption and integrity legislation says it all.
Without laws that mandate behaviour and impose real penalties, the next DLP Government will be as crooked as the current BLP Government.
September 6, 2007 at 1:05 am
Royalrumble you are so crooked that you are a blind political mule.
David Thompson worked hard and honestly for every penny he has.
* He never changed Land Use Zone….for kickbacks !
* He has never been accused of having
$ 750,00.00 lying down in his PERSONAL bank account instead of his party’s own !
* He never stood up on national TV and begged for a job even though been a paid Parliamentarian !
* He never presided over the largest cost over – runs of some $ 750 million in projects when he was Minister of Finance !
* He was not the political leader who only found out he was a daddy when his daughters reached 6 & 18 years respectively !
So you can carry your SCALLYWAG backside down the creek…….this week was Jamaica’s turn…..Barbados own coming soon !
Stay tune to a POLLING BOOTH near you !
September 6, 2007 at 12:51 pm
What is the difference between Black and White Royal Rumble? (as you propose Thompson is confused)
I propose you are sounding like a racist in a country that is very vulnerable to such prejudice.
yuk at your post.