Frazer Binns calls for rework of national approach to home, land ownership

SHADOW MINISTER for Land, Environment and Climate Change, Senator Sophia Frazer Binns, has scolded the Holness administration for its handling of the Clifton land matter and has called for a change in the national approach to allocation of land and housing, which would remove the impediments to acquiring property.

The attorney-at-law, who was one of five presenters at the People’s National Party’s (PNP) inaugural ‘Time Come to Put People First’ town hall meeting at the Bridgeport High School in Portmore, St Catherine, on Sunday, argued that there should have been consultation prior to the demolitions on October 6.

“We believe that consultation is important. We don’t believe that someone genuinely pays his or her money, or genuinely does what the law says he or she must do to own a piece (of land) and in the end you find out there is a piece of error. We don’t believe that the correct thing to do is to bulldozer di people dem!” she said.

“We believe that, as a caring and as a progressive party, that the right thing to do is to consult. We believe that the correct thing to do is to meet persons and to have a conversation to see how we can help them correct that wrong and not to make victims out of persons who are already victims,” Frazer Binns said.

During his presentation in the House of Representatives on October 5, Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who announced the impending demolition, said the lands near Clifton, Portmore, St Catherine, were captured by a criminal gang that was reselling plots fraudulently.

Those lands also fall within the Government’s Greater Bernard Lodge Development Plan. The affected residents said they paid large sums of money for the lots, with one woman claiming to have paid $800,000 for her lot.

Frazer Binns said a revamp of the process to owning land and housing is what is required to fix the problem.

“For us at the People’s National Party, land and the ownership of land, your housing, it’s not a luxury. It is not a privilege, but we see it as a right that every single Jamaican who wants to own a piece of this here rock called Jamrock should be able to do it,” she argued.

She said the PNP is cognisant that the present systems in place are ineffective and the cost to get a title “is too much”, with most Jamaicans not able to pay for even a survey diagram.

The Opposition senator said the PNP, under the leadership of Mark Golding, aims to make the process of land ownership easier, break down legislative barriers and change laws which will make it easier for persons to own land.

Frazer Binns also scolded the Government for using “the best agricultural lands” for housing.

“We believe that agricultural lands should be used for farming, because we have to ensure that we feed our people. As we know, ... Portmore has some of the best arable lands, and we’re going to put those lands into the hands of people so that anybody who wants to farm to help the country’s food security will have that opportunity,” Frazer Binns said.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com