San Fer­nan­do res­i­dents are mov­ing to file an in­junc­tion to stop the Open Bible Church from erect­ing a three-storey build­ing be­hind their homes.

The build­ing is sup­posed to house the Open Bible High School, a pri­vate school which has been in ex­is­tence for over 60 years.

But res­i­dents of Ram­saran Street and Men­tor Streets told Guardian Me­dia that con­struc­tion start­ed with­out any con­sul­ta­tion a mere two me­tres from their homes. This has caused struc­tur­al de­fects in their homes.

Dur­ing a plac­ard protest out­side the school at Ruth Av­enue, San Fer­nan­do, res­i­dent An­drew Mokund said they were be­ing de­nied their con­sti­tu­tion­al rights to the en­joy­ment of their prop­er­ty. 

He said more than 10 house­holds were af­fect­ed.

“This is against our con­sti­tu­tion­al rights and nat­ur­al jus­tice be­cause when this build­ing goes up we will no longer have any pri­va­cy, no ven­ti­la­tion or sun­light com­ing in­to our homes,” Mokund said.

He not­ed that the mas­sive struc­ture was sev­en times big­ger than it once was and will com­plete­ly block off light and air in­to their homes.

Since Oc­to­ber last year, Mokund said they have been try­ing to meet with the Church of­fi­cials to dis­cuss the con­struc­tion.

He not­ed that gap­ing cracks had al­ready de­vel­oped, not­ing that they have sent let­ters to the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty, Town and Coun­try Plan­ning and the San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion to com­plain. How­ev­er, their cries have fall­en on deaf ears, Mokund added. 

“We have been mak­ing at­tempts for a re­view of the build­ing since it start­ed but with­out suc­cess,” he lament­ed.

Residents protest over the building of a new structure at the Open Bible High School at Ruth Avenue, San Fernando, yesterday.

KRISTIAN DE SILVA

“This is an af­front to the com­mu­ni­ty that has been in ex­is­tence long be­fore the church has been es­tab­lished. Our grand­par­ents lived here and we have been liv­ing here for more than sev­en­ty years. The Church keeps ig­nor­ing our pleads for a re­duc­tion in the height of the school and a re­view of the prox­im­i­ty of the school to our hous­es,” Mokund said.

He al­so called for an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to who grant­ed ap­provals.

An in­ter­na­tion­al­ly li­censed ar­chi­tect An­drew Thatch­er who was hired to in­ves­ti­gate said res­i­dents could ex­pect fur­ther dam­age to their prop­er­ties.

“The build­ing is three storeys high which will cause the earth move­ments that have caused cracks. The earth is swelling with the struc­ture that is there now. Fur­ther im­pact will be con­sid­er­able when there is more weight be­cause the struc­ture is close to the sea. The wa­terbed is in 1,000 feet un­der the site that is there. The weight that is added will cause the struc­tures to shift and there will be tear and strain on the ex­ist­ing struc­tures now,” Thatch­er said.

But na­tion­al Sec­re­tary of the Open Bible Stan­dard Church­es, Mark David said the neigh­bours’ com­plaints were ad­dressed by the Church.

“All com­plaints were ven­ti­lat­ed to the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties. We have met with the neigh­bour­hood and the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties have grant­ed ap­provals,” David said.

He ex­plained that the Church had made con­ces­sions about the height of win­dows. 

“We have Town and Coun­try Plan­ning ap­proval and the San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion build­ing ap­provals as well,” David said

He al­so said no­tice was giv­en to res­i­dent be­fore the start of con­struc­tion.

“Every­thing is on file and en­vi­ron­men­tal fac­tors were con­sid­ered,” David added.

Con­cern­ing the res­i­dents’ prop­er­ty de­fects, David said he was un­aware of this, not­ing that it was re­gret­table that this in­for­ma­tion was com­ing from the me­dia and not from the res­i­dents.

“We should have a dis­cus­sion and see what is the cause of the chal­lenges. We are not ig­nor­ing them. We had cor­re­spon­dence, meet­ings with rep­re­sen­ta­tives,” David said. He added that the Church of­fi­cials were will­ing to hold fur­ther dis­cus­sions with the com­mu­ni­ty.