Dear Sir,

Is no one going to call Lieutenant-Colonel David Burch on his preposterous statement about “sabotage” of the Grand Atlantic development by people — white people, presumably — who “don’t want black people living on the South Shore”?

What nonsense is this?

Even ignoring the historical truth that there are lots of black people who live on the South Shore in Warwick and other parishes, there are two reasons that the Grand Atlantic development failed:

1, Apartments selling at $650,000 and more are not, by most definitions, “low-cost housing”; there are many middle-class families who would struggle to find a lender willing to finance an amount that is many times the annual income of most people

2, Those that can afford housing at that level of expense would, I imagine, be wary of investing all their savings in an apartment in a truly ugly development that is in danger of falling down the cliff during their lifetime

How is it that the retired colonel can blame racism for what was always a bad project? We should be asking why the then Progressive Labour Party government spent so much of taxpayer money funding this development when the only person who appears to have benefited from it is the (white) developer?

Please let’s band together to stop blaming race at every opportunity. Let those who made bad decisions stand up and be counted and accept responsibility. Regrettably, it seems this will never happen, as the PLP has become adept at diverting attention from its many failures by playing the race card — time and time again.

ELSPETH GRAY

Warwick