Illegal demolition of Restaurant is cause for concern
The owner of Reggae Pool Bar on Well Fare Rd. #67 was in a state of shock during the weekend when he found out that his restaurant was being demolished illegally while he was awaiting a court’s decision filed after a dispute between him and the land owner Mr. Daniel Hunt. The removal of the building could have only being ordered by the court since even the Ministry of VROMI removed themselves from issuing a demolition permit, which is required for work to go on at the location. It was confirmed by a VROMI official that they have nothing to do with this case. They call it a private issue between the Proprietor and the land owner.
The owner of the business, Mr. Clive Williams, says he opened the business back in 2007 and in 2009 it was destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt and put back into operation in 2014. Since then he said the owner of the land was appreciative of the upgrade made to the location and made several attempts to have him consider turning the business over to him. More than two offers for him to do so were made to the Proprietor by the land owner but according to Mr. Williams, the amount of money he spent was not taken into consideration, and the offers were nowhere close to justifying the work and money spent to make the location as popular as it was: therefore he refused the offers made to him.
Since then, there have been efforts to get him out of his contract and off the property until he decided to seek the assistance of an attorney and the case ended up in court. While awaiting the court’s decision and not been able to operate his business, there were continuing attempts for Mr. Williams to turn the business over, vacate the property or the land owner will seek permission to destroy what now is referred to as an illegal building. This past Friday July 07th, without a demolition permit and with no court order in hand, a demolition crew from the French Side rolled up on the property and began taking down the building and were against wanting to be photographed; obviously because they knew they were unlawfully carrying out work on the location. An eye witness who lives close by confirmed to the restaurant owner that a VROMI vehicle was seen on the property just before the demolition began and left shortly after. The concern is whether the Ministry is involved inadvertently in encouraging unlawful actions.
Meanwhile Mr. Williams lost everything of value in the building and is at the mercy of the court ruling that might go either way depending on the evidence of the case presented in the court hearing.
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