Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka says the Government has yet to finalise a policy on the protection of public parks from private development.
He made the comment in response to questions about whether the People’s Coalition Government would maintain and protect all open parks in urban centres.
“We do not have a policy yet,” Mr Rabuka said.
“We heard what happened in the past.
“We have not progressed those development plans,” Mr Rabuka said.
“Right now, we are not moving ahead.
“And until we formulate the policy and pass it after consultations with the municipalities, as well as the interested landowners.”
His comments follow remarks made by Minister for Sugar Charan Jeath Singh during the Fiji Media Association’s Meet the Press event in Ba on Thursday night.
“I remember that when Shirley Park (Lautoka) was also handed out to a private company for development, your group and of course the Ratepayers of Lautoka had objected to that,” Mr Singh told Lautoka Residents and Ratepayers Association president Narayan Reddy, who travelled to Ba on Thursday night to air concerns that another park in the Sugar City was earmarked for a hotel development.
“We have lost three parks. One is, we lost Shirley Park, but fortunately under our Prime Minister’s Coalition Government, that has gone back and Shirley Park will remain Shirley Park fully.
“The second one that we’ve lost was in Labasa called Jaycees Park, that’s already been developed, but thanks to the Prime Minister and the Coalition Government, our policy would be to, all the open parks will remain open parks.”
