Airport residents fume over ‘illegal’ 22-storey building

Residents in the Airport residential area are angry over the construction of a 22-storey building, claiming the developer is engaging in an illegality by putting up the structure as they threaten legal action over the failure by authorities to act

The residents say city authorities have been compromised and are allowing the private developer to go ahead with the building. They further claim there are constant noise pollution and obstruction of traffic as a result of the ongoing construction.

At a community meeting Monday the residents threatened a class legal action against the developers.

A lawyer and resident in the area speaking after the meeting lamented “this matter really concerns me because there are so many government agencies that have been informed about this illegal construction, the lack of an excavation permit, no building permit. The EPA has been notified, the ministry of urban roads, the land use and spacial planning authority, civil aviation, etc. The Ghana police have been on-site and nobody has done anything.”

She added: “Ayawaso came in, they gave them 8 weeks to restore the damage that the excavation had done, this has not been completed. Ayawaso West have not taken them to court for breaching their order, we haven’t seen the police taking criminal proceedings against them for blocking the public highway and we know the police were here in July and nothing has been done. so its almost like we have no faith, no confidence in government agencies. The ministration is not effective, it is not efficient, they are not enforcing the regulations, they are not enforcing the law and we feel the people have been compromised.”

Elaborating on the disturbances caused by the construction she said “there is constant noise because my office is about 15 metres from the construction site. The roads are blocked and obstructed at any time with no notice. There is no signage that who is responsible for the construction, We don’t know the architect, we don’t know the contractors and as we heard the engineers don’t even have licenses.”

“The debris, the dust, the air conditions in the school are coming out regularly because the dust is just too much in the atmosphere. People are having chest infections, a lot of children are going home because it causes asthma, and even just the threat of having that kind of building just in close proximity, obviously no consultation has been done,” she added.

The lawyer also alleged that the Ayawaso West municipal assembly tried to do a secret meeting on the 6th of September. She said “they invited them to try and come to a meeting to do an approval in principle. How can you do an approval in principle on the 6th of September after you have given somebody 8 weeks to do a retaining wall to protect the adjoining property and the public highway.”