By: Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Wednesday 6th July 2022) — The Harris-led People’s Labour Party (PLP) has informed via a social media post that work has begun on the construction of the new Basseterre High School, which is a fresh public debate topic in the lead-up to the upcoming General Elections. A caption posted on a 50-second video on Monday 4th July 2022 showed a bulldozer clearing the grassy area within the Basseterre Valley Aquifer region.
Speaking at a Cabinet Press Conference held Wednesday 29th June 2022, PM Harris claimed “there is no competition” between building the prison and the new BHS, and bashed his fired colleagues for failing to deliver a new school. “Over the last seven years, we have budgeted $81.5 million to get the Basseterre High School started. We have had three ministers of education. Shawn Richards — he didn’t get it done; Jonel Powell — he didn’t get it done; and we now have the honourable Vincent Byron working with the Minister of Public Infrastructure and in less than two months, we are moving ahead. Laziness, not a lack of funds,” Harris said. He commended Acting Education Minister Vincent Byron and new Deputy PM Eugene Hamilton “for getting done what couldn’t get be done in seven years.”
However, Dr. Geoffrey Hanley, the SKNLP’s Deputy Leader and Parliamentary Representative for Constituency One, where the aquifer is located, said: “Nothing can happen in six hours and to be frank and probably blunt, no construction would take place on the aquifer. The only thing that might happen is that somebody might be lucky to have received money for a job that they might not be able to get done. Or maybe just to clear a piece of land — you might hear that to just clear the land alone, which would take almost six weeks, might be a million dollars. But no construction will be taking place on the aquifer.” Under an SKNLP-led government, the new BHS will be built at the old site.