Government Initiates Vehicle Removal Program and Targets Abandoned Buildings: Details and Progress Revealed

The government is rolling out its derelict vehicle removal programme next week, a top environment enforcer has disclosed. And the authorities are training their sights on demolishing abandoned buildings.

Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment Anthony Headley – whose substantive post is director of the Environmental Protection Department, the state agency responsible for executing the programme – said that about $580 000 was allocated to the vehicle derelict programmes for the 2024 financial year, an increase of $180 000.

Preparations are well underway for the derelict vehicle removal programme to start in the third week of April, he said.

At the end of last year over 4 300 derelict vehicles and buildings were identified.

Headley said: “We identified roughly 2 700 derelict vehicles and we are in the process of completing the administrative work associated with that. My officers have begun serving the notices. The next step would be to put those derelict vehicles into lots and assign contractors to start the removal process. The 2 700, as you can imagine, is a significant amount, so we’ll break them down into packages, about 100 or so initially per contractor.

“We’re hoping to start the removal process by the third week of April with a view of trying to remove a substantial number of those vehicles.”

The acting permanent secretary said the vehicles were mainly found in the Bridgetown area, St Lucy, St Philip, Christ Church and St James. The strategy, he said, would be to start in the north and proceed to the southern districts.

Headley could not immediately provide the number of contractors who registered for the programme.

Last year, about 600 vehicles were removed from across the island. This year, the goal is to at least remove 1 300.

The government has determined that a derelict vehicle includes any abandoned automobile, truck, or other vehicular parts that could harbour vermin. Abandoned vehicles are investigated by the Environmental Protection Department to determine if they are derelict; then, a notice is served to the owner for its disposal under the Health Services (Collection and Disposal of Refuse) Regulations of 1975. Section 15A gives the government the authority to dispose of derelict vehicles.

A notice gives the owner seven days from the date of the notice to remove the vehicle. The government may proceed to have the vehicle removed and disposed of if the owner does not comply with the notice. “Reasonable expenses” incurred for the removal may be recovered from the owner under the regulation.

Turning his attention to derelict buildings, Headley said his officers were in the process of verification.

“We are in the process of checking and verifying that all of the buildings that have been identified at the end of last year meet the criteria as established within the Health Services Building Regulations. So when that process is completed, we will start issuing notices on those buildings that have been identified as derelict. I can’t provide any specific statistics on those as yet until my staff complete the check-in process,” he said.

“Earlier this year, we published a list. We are now preparing the second publication, which would be the invitation for bidders to submit their bids for [the demolition of] those buildings. But we anticipate any time after June that we would [start demolition]. Ideally, we would like to try to move both vehicles and houses prior to the hurricane season, but it takes some time in terms of processing the large number of derelict buildings and vehicles that we’ve identified.”

Derelict building notices are served under the Health Services Act of 1969. Under Section 11, which authorises the government to demolish derelict buildings, notices are served for the improvement or cleaning of the buildings. If this is not done by the stipulated time, the department can have the building removed. A notice gives the owner 21 days from the date of the notice to demolish the derelict building.

Headley stressed that the demolition notice is a last resort. A list of derelict buildings is published giving the owner an additional 14 days to adhere to the notice, failing which the building would be knocked down.

Derelict vehicles and buildings pose a threat to public health, said the top civil servant.

“We are trying to eliminate the breeding places and homes of those vectors which can cause illness. And then there’s the aesthetics issue, in terms of how unsightly those things are on our landscape,” he said.

(SZB)