Residents in Haynesville, St James, say they have endured years of an overpowering stench from a neighbouring chicken pen, with some claiming repeated complaints to authorities have brought little relief.
When Barbados TODAY visited the scene, businessman Anthony Ifill, who lives mere feet away from the neighbour’s house and is one of those most affected, said on Wednesday he has had to put up with the pungent smell of chicken manure for about three years now.
Anthony Ifill cries foul over chicken manure stench. (EJ)
Ifill also said that after all this time, nobody in the government seemed willing or able to take action to make the offending resident clean up her act.
“The lady at the head office of the ministry told me that she was the person I needed to speak to and that the inspector for the area from Black Rock would not only have to go fix up, she boldly told me that she would follow up with me, and she never did after promising me that she would when I called her up to remind her. “
“I have promptly deleted and blocked her,” he declared, “because she is, and has been zero help, just like the inspector who I’ve been trying to have an audience with for three years. I been to see him multiple times and so has my brother. They wouldn’t even let you put the complaint in writing that you were actually there to make a complaint; all we got was that it would be logged in the book.”
He accused the neighbour of failing to show any care or consideration for the peace and comfort of those around her, explaining that at one point she appeared to have cleaned up for a short while because the odour was gone, but soon went back to her old habits.
Ifill said that after a hard day’s work, he would love to be able to return home to a comfortable environment and relax without having to endure the smell of chicken manure.
Randy Mason’s backyard is almost touching the back fence of the woman’s house where the chicken pen is located.
Randy Mason complains of roaches. (EJ)
Mason said that ever since moving to his spot some two years ago, the stench emanating from the neighbour’s yard has been bothering him and attracting rats and roaches.
“I does got a lot of flies in my yard. I got a lot of rats coming in by me because they come under the paling. There are also a lot of centipedes coming from that direction; and cockroaches. You see when six o’clock and the sun goes down? cockroaches are in that yard like bush,” he told Barbados TODAY.
“The smell is impacting especially when you have clothes hang out, the scent goes into the clothes. I don’t want to stop them from living their daily lives, but at the same time, they have to be cognisant of the surroundings too, and how it impacting other people.”
He added: “I had spoken to other neighbours who said that when the rain falls, the smell gets really strong. But I live directly behind the pen, so it’s affecting me a lot. They don’t seem to care. I don’t want to stop them from doing what they doing because everybody has to make an extra dollar. But they have to do something about the stench by cleaning more often.”
The distraught resident claims the offending neighbour does not come to them to have a discussion.
When Barbados TODAY reached out to the Haynesville woman at the centre of the complaints, she did not immediately respond.
But environmental health officials said on Wednesday they had received the complaint from a resident and have since served notice on the small chicken farmer.
“I can confirm that officers from the Brandford Taitt Polyclinic responded in their official capacity to this complaint and I have been updated,” Acting Chief Environmental Officer Euroline Welch-Drakes told Barbados TODAY, adding that due to confidentiality considerations, she could not divulge any findings from the inspectors.
Welch-Drakes said: “We are working on the complaints that Mr Ifill would have made. The officers have started the investigation process. I know that. But there are processes that we have to go through…procedures, and that is being done. I can say to you, they [the officers] have served notices. That’s all I can tell you.”
The environmental health expert also explained that once the matter is resolved, her department will engage the complainant.
“But what we do not do is that we do not engage with the complainant while we are engaging with the complainee…because, one of the things we try not to do is to cause conflict between community members.”
The environmental official also addressed the question of enforcement and penalties if breaches of the law are found:
“Once an inspection is conducted and any breaches of the Health Services legislation identified, instructions are issued to abate the public health nuisances and timelines given for such abatement. Failure to comply with instructions, may result in an administrative penalty being assessed against the offender. That is $300 in the first instance payable in a specified time period and $10 per day after that period had elapsed until the nuisance is abated.”
“This penalty may be assessed against your land tax or recovered through the court of law.”
(EJ)
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