Planners are considering an application for containers on a storage site where, according to an objector to the application, a “huge and traumatic fire” exploded recently from gasoline drums, endangering lives in the vicinity.
A businessman, Garfield Ellis, is requesting retrospective planning permission for four shipping containers to be used for storing rental items in Evco Tours Drive Lane, off Mangrove Avenue, near Shamrock Road in Prospect.
In their application to the Central Planning Authority, Ellis’s lawyers have said he did not realise planning permission was necessary, is sorry, and is willing to correct his mistake, adding landscaping palms and river gravel in the area to beautify it.
His lawyers explained: “The existing container has been at this location for more than 5 years. Which is used for the storing of rental items, mainly chairs for functions.
“The other two (containers) were added around 3 years ago. There was actually 4 containers in total, but he had decided to remove one.”
However, in a letter of objection, one neighbour has argued that the community in the residential neighborhood would “rather not have it commercialized with such storage of items for commercial business purposes”, and has blamed Ellis for a recent traumatic blaze.
The neighbour wrote: “Recently, due to the … actions of Mr. Garfield Ellis storing numerous drums of gasoline, multiple large containers of diesel, multiple gardening trailers with containers of fuel within the yard of his residence, my family and I experienced a very traumatic event that endangered our lives and the safety of our home.”
The letter went on: “An explosion erupted and a huge fire engulfed from an overturned drum of gasoline within the same area of multiple drums of gasoline which he was storing directly on our boundary line which would have easily spread if not for the quick thinking of another neighbor who called the emergency services.”
The objector does not have confidence only rental items will be stored in the containers if planning permission is granted.
Most of the site is already developed, but there are mangroves on nearby Crown land to the east.
In April 2022, the Department of Environment had to issue a cease and desist order against Ellis for removal of mangroves on that site.
In its notes to the planning board, the DoE reported that the order was issued “in relation to the works associated with the unauthorised ‘take’ of mangroves on the adjacent Crown-owned parcel”.
The DoE statement continued: “The unpermitted ‘take’ of mangroves was in contravention of Section 33(1)(a) and (2)(a) of the NCA and the Mangrove Species Conservation Plan (2020).
“The Applicant should note that this Cease and Desist Order remains in effect until it is rescinded and any further unpermitted ‘take’ of mangroves on Crown property is an additional offence.”
The Central Planning Authority considered the application in its meeting on 27 March. A decision on the matter will be published when minutes of the meeting are released, usually within two weeks.
The press and public are not allowed to observe its members’ deliberations or learn which way each member votes. Its members’ lack of transparency has been repeatedly criticised by the auditor general.
Related Videos
