THE EDITOR, Sir:
I REFER to the article of Sunday, April 9, 'Sweet land deals', which states that "The Sunday Gleaner has uncovered sales of dozens of state-owned properties to private individuals and organisations at bargain basement prices." It refers to the Cashew Grove Land Development Ltd., a registered Provident Society, which bought 22 acres of the Irwin Estate for $5 million. Further on in the article, it singles out only one trustee, Mrs. Barbara Nelson, wife of former PNP Member of Parliament Arthur Nelson, although there are other trustees. It continues to state that "she has no direct investment in it".
As a trustee, I am very proud of the Cashew Grove Provident Society. It has taken 12 long years of lobbying by the Irwin Citizens Association and the then MP Arthur Nelson to reach this far, since his first effort at a housing solution started in 1994. The Irwin Citizens' Association helped with the Provident Society formation in 2001, but NHDC already had their budgets full; the Ministry of Land & Environment and the Minister Dean Peart and his team were very involved; the Divestment Committee chaired by Rev. Oliver Daley met with chairman Bruce Gaynor, myself and our lawyer, and finally the purchase price of $5 million was arrived at after two valuations and our arguments since all the correspondence went back to 1994. I am proud of the members who stayed with chairman Gaynor and the board of directors and believed in the project as Irwin is a wonderful place to live; the development is beside the com-munity centre and sports ground; we now have two new schools (Irwin High and Irwin Primary) all of this has been lobbied for by the Irwin Citizens Association since 1974!
Media houses attempt to smear all and sundry as corrupt, and in so doing, there is an attempt to sully the names of many who try to make the real citizens of our country feel part of the process of development. Arthur Nelson broke ground with Ministers Ramtallie and Phillips on the Operation Pride projects in his constituency which saw thousands of housing solutions between Retirement, Pitfour and NHT Green Pond. So many persons wanted the beautiful lands called Cashew Grove that every stumbling block was put in the way of the Provident Society. As a member of the Irwin Citizens Association, Arthur Nelson can watch his hard work as MP come to fruition in the 'Cashew Grove Estate'.
As a trustee of Cashew Grove Provident Society and past president of the Irwin Citizens Association, neither I nor Arthur Nelson nor any of our children nor family members have any direct or indirect investment in the Cashew Grove Land Development Ltd. except for our love for the community of Irwin.
I am, etc.,
BARBARA NELSON J.P.
(MRS)
Trustee Cashew Grove Land
Development Ltd.
