Gov’t to address land settlement issues in Westmoreland

The Government is to intensify efforts to regularise land settlements in Westmoreland, says Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness.

Addressing a land titling ceremony at the Lacovia Community Centre in St Elizabeth on Friday, December 12, Holness said Hurricane Melissa brought renewed attention to the parish’s settlement challenges.

He explained that the current pattern in Westmoreland is neither structured nor orderly, while adding that the deeper issue is insecurity of tenure.

“Many persons are not landowners; they may rent, they may have permission to occupy the land, but at some point, they know that they will face the call from the landowner to move. It is not an unusual sight to see the home either being pulled on a cart or on a flatbed truck going to another place to live,” Holness pointed out.

The Prime Minister acknowledged that while land settlement is an emotional issue, it must be addressed from a planning and governance perspective.

“I do pay attention to the emotions involved, but it is also a matter of economics, it is a matter of law and order, it is a matter of proper spatial and town planning. We will approach the problem in Westmoreland with the necessary sensitivity and passion to ensure that every citizen of Jamaica…have a fair chance, a fair opportunity to get access to land,” Holness said.

He stressed that the aim of regularisation is to provide long-term security and sustainability.

“The objective of the government is to give you ownership of land that is secure, land that can be lived on in a sustainable way and land that forms part of the planned area of the government,” he emphasised.

In the meantime, Holness said Jamaica must undergo a major transformation in how communities are settled, as climate-related threats intensify across the region.

“Every year countries like Jamaica will face a climate event that will have an impact on our balance sheet, but more so an impact on your household. This region, the Caribbean, the Atlantic region, has been impacted by more category five hurricanes in the last 10 years than in the last 50 years previously,” he stated.

He warned that increasing storm intensity is a clear sign to seek proper settlement areas, while stressing that land registration plays a critical role in guiding safer development.

“Having a proper system of registering our land is going to be absolutely important to how we settle Jamaica,” Holness said.

- JIS News

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