by TREVOR YEARWOOD

AFTER A 14-YEAR BREAK, the Barbados House of Assembly will have an Independent member from today.

When the House resumes after a two-month recess, Member of Parliament for St Michael South East Hamilton Lashley, will be sitting as an Independent, and no longer with the Barbados Labour Party (BLP).

Lashley was one of ten BLP members who won seats in the January 15 general election, but he recently parted company with the BLP over policy differences.

The last Independent to sit in the House was trade union leader LeRoy (now Sir Roy) Trotman. In 1994 he resigned from the DLP during a turbulent period under then Prime Minister Lloyd (now Sir Lloyd) Erskine Sandiford but stayed in Parliament until the dissolution that made it the shortest Parliament since 1951.

But today's session could well be dominated by other matters, among them stepped-up security for schools, a $30 million subsidy for the Barbados Transport Board and a $33.6 million package to subsidise fuel.

Today's Order Paper lists two items for debate. One is a resolution seeking to transfer $80 million from the Consolidated Fund for use by Government.

The money is earmarked for several projects, including subsidising transport and electricity operations and funding road construction.

From this supplemental, Government is planning to finance the Barbados National Oil Company Limited (BNOCL) to the tune of $33.6 million. This is for providing subsidised fuel oil to the Barbados Light & Power Company Limited under a programme to keep electricity rates down.

It is also providing $39 million to enable the Transport Board to fund its operations until the end of the 2008-09 financial year.

There will also be additional security at secondary schools through the provision of security guard huts and fencing ($894 000). Part of a $1.5 million allocation for primary schools will be used in the same way.

Government has earmarked $3 million for road rehabilitation and $10 million for launching a Special Projects Road Improvement Programme.

Under a $200 000 Ministry of Health head, Government is seeking funds to cover the cost of a structural assessment of the St Joseph Hospital and Villa Maria buildings in Ashton Hall, St Peter.

Minister of Health, Dr David Estwick, said recently that the plan was to use the complex "to create a geriatric-type service to move those patients (who) are now blocking beds at the QEH (Queen Elizabeth Hospital) to that type of service".

The Order Paper also lists a bill to bring water rates under the ambit of the Fair Trading Commission, which now has the final say in telephone, electricity and natural gas rate increases.