battle with the West End Development Corporation (Wedco) over rents, water bills and lack of repairs.

Some tenants who complained to Wedco about water bills have been told they no longer have to pay for the entire year of 1992, the Dockyard Housing Committee said in a news release.

"In view of this success, the committee plans to redouble its efforts and to spearhead more initiatives on behalf of the area residents,'' the statement added.

Water billings were recently introduced with lump-sum payments described as "crippling''.

Along with Progressive Labour Party Sandys North MPs Mr. Eugene Cox and Mr.

Dennis Lister, the committee is organising a meeting between Wedco and area residents, "so there is no opportunity for Wedco to divide and conquer.'' Needed repairs, water quality, and rents are other issues to be addressed, the committee said.

"A main reason for residents moving to Dockyard was because of the economic rents,'' the statement said. "Yet now, the Government has inflated the rents to commercial levels, making it very difficult for people to subsist.

"Consequently, a bad situation has become even more intolerable.'' A questionnaire has been prepared for listing needed repairs.

The committee told of one resident who was repeatedly threatened with eviction after a bureaucratic mix-up.

She was "worried to death'' by eviction notices because Wedco said she owed $6,000 in back rent. "It was only by chance that it was eventually confirmed that she was up-to-date, after a bureaucratic mix-up between Wedco, the Housing Corporation and the Works and Engineering Ministry over payments.'' The committee reported a "record turnout'' at its meeting last week.