By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

SIX hundred derelict vehicles will be removed from the Englerston community, the start of a project government officials hope to extend to other constituencies in New Providence.

Housing and Urban Renewal Minister Keith Bell said after the derelict cars are removed, his ministry will work with property owners who want to sell their properties to the government, which would build low-cost homes in the areas.

During a tour of Englerston yesterday, he said that in many communities, derelict cars have sprung up on private properties that the owner has either abandoned or not checked in many years.

Acting director of the Department of Environmental Health Services Launa Williams said health inspectors assessed areas, and vector control officers visited the places to set traps for rats because removing vehicles will “disturb the habitats for the rodents”.

Environment Minister Vaughn Miller said a survey of derelict vehicles found that Englerston was the “most challenged area”. He said officials will eventually deal with dilapidated buildings as well.

Police are concerned that guns, ammunition and drugs are stored in derelict vehicles.

“We have intelligence that tells us that because cars are assembled here or gathered here, persons would be looking for somewhere to dump a vehicle instead of going down where they supposed to go,” said Assistant Commissioner of Police Anthony Rolle.

“They will come to these communities and park it right in the front and this is how you have an overflow of these vehicles.”

“These sites are places where they do scrap metals. They just go and dump their debris. So we also want to send a clarion call to these scrap metal places. You have to secure your debris or your product within the boundary of your property.”

A toy gun was found in a car during yesterday’s walkabout.

“This is a perfect example of why these vehicles need to be removed from these communities because that’s what they do,” ACP Rolle said. “This could’ve been used in the commission of some crime.”

Police also found a Mercedes Benz Jeep with a disc that did not belong to the vehicle –– a fraudulent use of a license disc, police said.

Mr Bell noted that the law bans importing cars older than ten years.

“Coming into these communities, we have tasked all of the different departments and entities to make recommendations to this government as to whether or not we ought to ensure that we again review that and even reduce that,” he said.

“You will take note that if you go down to customs right now, there are a number of vehicles which have been severely damaged in accidents in the United States, etc. Those vehicles are not to come into the country. That’s our position unequivocally.”