The residents of Trouya are celebrating. And with good reason: they have won their battle against the construction at Trouya cove, a tiny but picturesque beach in the vicinity. According to Lincoln Weekes, one of the residents who led the charge, it was only on Thursday this week that he received the news that the Development Control Authority (DCA) had rejected the proposed development.
“We had been trying to find out when the DCA board would be meeting to decide,” Weekes said. He and his fellow protesters had submitted their petition last December but it turned out a new board had not been in place up to the first week of March.
“I must say I was pleasantly surprised that the new board decided not to give the proposed project the green light,” Weekes told the STAR. “This is a bit of a reprieve but while we are happy, we are still maintaining a defensive for any future plans. We feel certain there is some sort of Plan B.”
The Trouya residents had received widespread support for their petition including the backing of Gros Islet fishers and the constituency’s former MP Leonard “Spider” Montoute. The current MP Emma Hyppolyte had also supported the protesters, albeit “quietly” the STAR was told. What a wonderful message to the nation she would have sent had the MP set aside partisan politics and openly demonstrated her support by standing with her predecessor and the Trouya residents.
From the DCA perspective “there has been strong opposition against the development by the land-owners, the community.”
Meanwhile the Trouya Pointe Community would like to thank the general public for “its support of our opposition to this proposal which would have not only impacted the Trouya Pointe residents but the wider population.”
Among other supporters were the Corinth Secondary and Castries Comprehensive Secondary Schools, St. Mary’s College and The St. Joseph Convent. “It is these institutions that touch most of the people responsible for deliberating this decision and they really did understand the broader issue at hand,” Weekes said. He is optimistic that this precedent will spur Saint Lucians into letting their voices be heard in other matters of public interest. “We cannot just sit idly by and allow our country to be any further prostituted.”
