By Monique Hepburn, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
PROBLEMS OF acquiring land ownership data in Hanover seem poised to stall the implementation of the Hanover Development Plan being proposed by the Hanover Homecoming Foundation (HHF).
"We are finding it very hard to get data on land ownership and if we are proposing land development, it is only wise if you know who the land belongs to," said Earl Bailey, lecturer in Rural and Urban Planning at the University of Technology (UTech). Mr. Bailey was speaking with The Gleaner on Tuesday in Negril, following the unveiling of the first draft of Hanover's development plan during a business forum held at Sunset on the Palms resort.
PROMOTING INVESTMENT
The forum is aimed at promoting investment in Hanover and is one of several activities during the inaugural Hanover Homecoming week celebrations which ends on Saturday, July 31. UTech was commissioned by the HHF to design a sustainable and integrated development plan that would guide the economic and social expansion of the parish. "Situations of absentee ownership, fragmented ownership, no records of land transactions and informal land transfers, made it difficult for my team to gather land tenure data," Mr. Bailey explained.
However, he was quick to point out that this feature was not common only to Hanover but could be found islandwide.
NO OFFICIAL RECORDS
"What we see in Hanover might not be isolated as this is a trait of Jamaica's spatial historical development," said Mr. Bailey while adding, "Situation like this inevitably hinders development. A man might say to his son, the land from here to that Guango tree is yours but there is no official record of it and we find now that it is coming back to haunt us today," said Mr. Bailey.
Paul Trench, head of the HHF, told The Gleaner on Tuesday that it was very hard to acquire land tenure information, a matter he has had to deal with on numerous occasions in the construction industry.
"There is a definite problem with finding out who are our land owners in the parish and this will definitely hinder any development we are proposing," said Mr. Trench.
According to Mr. Bailey the issue is compounded by the fact that the development of urban centres is an important aspect of Hanover's future development.
"We need to have all the land accounted for especially in our urban centres. We want to know how to proceed in terms of recommending particular types of structures for certain areas."
Mr. Bailey continued, "Land is the basic unit of development and we need to know who owns it, in order to know what to do with it. Our land tenure system is not where it should be for a developing country."
