ELEUTHERA, BAHAMAS -Spanish Wells Commonage Committee Chairman Ivanhoe Sweeting said while increased checks on the Blackwoods commonage land in North Eleuthera have stalled illegal building, the community’s population continues to expand.
Sweeting said committee members still notice many unfamiliar new faces whenever they carry out their weekly/bi-weekly walkabouts.
“Nothing has been built, absolutely nothing. […] We constantly see new faces every time we go over there,” he said.
“We see people we’ve never seen before we don’t know of they are just passing through or if they are just out there visiting […] because we notice these new people when they see us, within a few minutes they’re gone they just disappear.”
Although there has been no confirmation of the exact numbers of residents in Blackwoods, Sweeting said that a resident told him that he had witnessed hundreds of people migrate to the area just after Hurricane Dorian.
“He told us that since Dorian there’s been over 400 people come to Blackwoods from Abaco.”
Sweeting added that they have not gotten any direct updates from the government since speaking with the minister of Works several months ago, who has since told the press on several occasions that a multifaceted task force has been put in place to tackle issues related to illegal communities.
“I understand the legal ramifications of dealing with an issue like this. […] but there has to come a point in this country where the government says the law is the law, you have broken the law and then there’s consequences when you are breaking the law, plain and simple.”
A month ago, Sweeting said that a number of commoners had wanted to see progress from the government by January unless they would deal with the issue by filing the paperwork for cases themselves.
As the commoners get ready to vote and discuss pressing matters on Monday, during their annual meeting, the Commonage Chairman explained that although the removal of squatters remains top priority for the group, as it stands currently, he’s not sure how much longer commoners as a whole are willing to wait.
“A few people I have just spoken to over the last couple of days they still have the same mindset that if the government doesn’t do something in a timely manner they want us to take it up and start taking the people to court and have them removed off the land.”
Sweeting added that the fact that the ban that was put into effect a few months ago has been working so well, commoners may be a bit more patient in waiting for government to carry out their plans in fixing the problem.
“I actually believe where building seems to be pretty much at a halt right now, I think they will go a long way, calming everybody down […] for people to say well it seem like this is working so we can wait a little bit longer and see what the governments going to do.”
