Prime Minister Freundel Stuart says he has found no evidence to support the number of complaints levelled at the Town and Country Planning Department.
“I go out to the department, on site visits, armed with the files and use what modest lawyerly skills I possess to try to evaluate the evidence and I really cannot honestly say that we have a bad Town and Country Planning Department,” he said yesterday at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre during the Barbados Employers’ Confederation 51st annual general meeting luncheon.
The Prime Minister said he did “an extensive tour” of the department a few weeks ago.
“I am the minister now with responsibility for planning and I felt that it was my obligation to see that department close up. I stopped at every single desk . . . to try to work out what particular roles people played once an application was received by that department,” he said.
Stuart said he was “amazed” by the attention to detail that was required before an application was permitted or refused.
He noted that the information on which the department was asked to rely was “not always free of moral turpitude”.
He added that in many cases when appeals were filed the delays resulted from appellants requesting adjournments at the last minute or not turning up “but then you hear the department being reviled and being smeared as though all the fault is theirs”.
He said “a deep and annoying suspicion” has enveloped the department with regard to people who gave the impression that they needed permissions urgently and then when the department delivered these permissions they remained unused for several years.
Stuart said there was a need to work out a formula that suited both sides.
