Resignation or accountability

When our houses were built here in an area of Madliena that is in the vicinity of the Victoria Lines, we had to abide by certain regulations that had to be strictly observed. It was necessary to have a plot of no less than one tumolo on which to build a villa/residence. It was also obligatory to leave a curtilage of 25 feet for garden space between the edges of the building itself and the property boundary wall. These regulations made sense and gave rise to decent detached villas surrounded by greenery and trees.

Now, some 35 odd years later we find that although the regulations are still in force they are being blatantly ignored by the very body that should ensure their enforcement.

The buyer of a villa that is in the immediate vicinity of our properties and abuts onto the Victoria Lines has recently been granted an outline permit to demolish the villa and to build in its stead four detached buildings on a plot measuring less than the mandatory four tumoli. To make matters worse the four individual buildings may not be four detached villas but, we understand, four buildings each comprising four maisonettes thus accomodating 16 households; one can only imagine the resultant chaos due to the increase in the number of cars using the narrow one-car lane that provides the only access to the property. To allow for this size of development the DCC went further with their malpractices by reducing the 25-foot curtilage to 20 feet. The DCC therefore granted this outline permit by completely ignoring the rules and regulations that have to be observed for the building of villa residences as laid down in policies that apply to development in this area.

Which brings us to the question: To whom are the gentlemen of the DCC, who so conveniently resigned albeit on an unrelated matter, accountable for their abusive decisions? And if resignation brings with it exoneration then there is no accountability for abuse of power and misdemeanours. Surely, the act of resignation should not bring exoneration with it. This is a loophole that needs to be addressed before one can hope to put a stop to repetitions of similar irregularities.