Lady Musgrave property owners gear up for land buyout

Some landowners along Lady Musgrave Road are on edge following the issue of property acquisition notices for a government project geared at widening the thoroughfare as part of the $8-billion Capital Expenditure Programme (CAPEX).

Notices were placed on property boundaries this week.

Ray Brennan, a land owner, told The Gleaner that he was in receipt of the notice on Wednesday. He said he understood the need for land but still had questions.

“I just get this. I don’t know where it come from, who it come from. I know that the road has to be widened. If they widen East Kings House Road, they can actually cut off lands from King’s House, but there is no King’s House here,” Brennan said.

Brennan, 78, said some of the buildings along the roadway have been there before he was born.

While acknowledging the need for wider corridors to ease the traffic jams that often clog Kingston, he is hopeful that incursions will be made on both sides of Lady Musgrave.

“The Government have the right to do it, but they have to pay you ... . If you come here 7, 8, 9 o’clock in the morning, the traffic back up sometimes right back up to the traffic light and then right back to Barbican,” Brennan said.

Larry Kong, shop operator of 30 years, said that his father, the original owner, forecast many moons ago that road development would take place.

“He knew about this, but he said it was not going to be for now, but that was years ago, but now time has come,” Kong said in a Gleaner interview Thursday.

Another business representative said they got the notice in hand on Wednesday and that little explanation was given.

“Yesterday when they gave us the paper, they never gave us the date when the works will commence. They said they will call us or come back. The man said it was notified (gazetted) this date December 23, 2022, but it was served to us yesterday,” the staffer said.

“He said when the date set and we don’t comply by that date, then they will give us another date to go to court.”

Brennan said his next step is to seek audience with the Government.

“I have to get in to them and ask them to let me know what the procedure is, how they are going to do it, when they are going to do it, and all of that so I can make preparations for it. They have to do that with all the landowners along the road. They can’t just arrive here one morning with heavy equipment and start hit down the fence,” Brennan told The Gleaner.

He said he first learned of the project a year ago on the radio but has heard nothing since.

E. G. Hunter, CEO of the National Works Agency (NWA), said that the Lady Musgrave Road realignment is one of six projects under the CAPEX programme.

The capital projects include the widening of Lady Musgrave Road and East Kings House Road, Arthur Wint Drive to Deanery Road, dualisation of Grange Lane and the Hellshire main road in Portmore, widening of the bridge on Washington Boulevard, and a new entrance into Portmore.

Hunter said land acquisition is a bugbear and is one of the most problematic elements of project implementation.

“So having identified the lands that we require, we then make a Cabinet submission asking Cabinet to approve the acquisition of those slivers of land that would be required. Cabinet has approved that I saw a gazette which was published, and the purpose of that gazette is to alert the public that the Government intends to acquire,” Hunter said.

The National Land Agency would undertake that process and deliver to the NWA lands free of encumbrances.

The finalised project will be submitted to the public investment appraisal branch of the Ministry of Finance, which requires all public-investment projects to be analysed by a committee chaired by Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke, the NWA chief executive said.

Hunter said it is hoped that the Lady Musgrave Road project will be submitted to that committee in one month.

Upon approval, works will commence in the new financial year. The road will be outfitted with water and sewerage mains, fibre-optic cables, fibre-optic ducts for broadband expansion, as well as drainage, streetscape, and other features that will improve the commute and enhance the aesthetics, Hunter said.

Hunter said the NWA is far advanced in identifying contracting possibilities.

“No contractor has been singled out for this as yet. The normal procurement process will obtain, but it is a requirement that we get it in the Budget before we go to procurement,” Hunter told The Gleaner.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com