WATCH: Tensions flare at meeting over Charles’ Barking Lodge aquaculture project

ST THOMAS, Jamaica — A sensitisation meeting over a controversial aquaculture project in Barking Lodge, St Thomas erupted in chaos Tuesday as tensions boiled over amid continued opposition to the development near a primary school in the community.

The meeting, held at the Barking Lodge Primary and Infant School, the institution located behind the proposed fish ponds, ended abruptly when Member of Parliament for St Thomas Eastern Rose Shaw and her team walked out.

Dr Michelle Charles, the former St Thomas Eastern Member of Parliament and director of St Thomas Farms Limited, the company behind the project, had organised the sensitisation meeting for the development which was suspended due to a lack of environmental permits.