…And legal advisor in Ministry of Lands will dig into the issue

And while Hopkins residents want their graveyard and its sanctity restored, Legal Advisor in the Ministry of Lands, Douglas Carr was as baffled as we were to learn of the transaction. We asked him how the original owner got possession of the land in the first place.

Douglas Carr, Legal Advisor, Ministry of Lands (Via Phone)
“It’s something… it’s a strange occurrence. I mean you hear people surveying other people land but when it comes to a graveyard that existed long ago, it’s strange. I would think that if dredging would occur, they should have the proper permits and they should have the environmental permits to proceed with the developments.”

Marion Ali
“You don’t know that they have it?”

Douglas Carr
“I don’t know that they have it and this is news to me as well.”

Mario Augustine
“To go into the grave and the northern part of the grave site, now those people have a barrier in the middle of the street that you must go through a security booth, which belongs to their resort and their company to go into the other part of the graveyard, which is totally unacceptable.”

Marion Ali
“So you have to get permission from them to visit your dead?”

Mario Augustine
“Yeah, in a ay because if you need to go from the street side, if you need to go and bury somebody further north, then you have to pass through that checkpoint that they have there and you must get permission from the security to go in to that part of the burying ground.”

Marion Ali
“What’s the current village council saying? What are they doing? Are they doing anything?”

Mario Augustine
“Well, I spoke with the Chairman this morning and he told me that he had no knowledge of certain things happening. We want back our cemetery, that five acres and this current project that they are having there, they are dredging the canal. Leave that mouth alone because traditionally, that mouth of the river works along with nature. It closes at certain times of the year and when it closes it is time for the time for the fish to breed. When it closes it is time for the fish and other species in there to spawn and later on when the it opens, it’s time for them to come out and if they keep it open all through the year, the spawning grounds will totally be damaged.”

Carr says he will ask the Lands Commissioner, Manuel Rodriguez, to investigate the matter. News Five tried to reach General Manager of Hopkins Harbour Development Limited, Theo Jensen, but he was out of the office.