fp Turks and Caicos

The latest proposed Crown Land Policy drew criticism from some members of the Consultative Forum who saw it as a further example that the interim government is treating Turks and Caicos Islanders like “a bunch of crooks.”

“Too many of the things that are now being put to us seem to be saying to the world, ‘This is a bunch of crooks, and we have to design things in a way to put them in order,’” said forum member Dr. Linda Williams, who was not alone in her feelings at the forum’s monthly meeting Jan. 18.

Her comments came in response to the suggestion that the administration of the country’s Crown Land Policy be moved from control of TCI elected ministers and Cabinet to the Attorney General’s Office. Crown land advisor Jon Llewellyn suggested the change “in order to ensure independence of Crown land management and to restore confidence in wider land administration by government.”

Several members said that the Crown land process would have worked if it had been followed and enforced, but Llewellyn disagreed: “That system did not work.”

Under the Crown land policy enacted in 2005, the former government gave huge discounts on Crown land worth billions of dollars to individuals and developers, making little money for government and leaving only 23 percent of all developable land for Belongers to seek ownership today.

Some of those allocations are being challenged by the interim government’s Civil Recovery Team of lawyers to reclaim property for the government. Those claims include huge tracts on Joe Grant Cay and Salt Cay, while other allocations on Dellis Cay and the Third Turtle development are under review. Several individuals also are accused of obtaining Crown land for personal residential use, then wrongly flipping the property to developers for huge profits.

The former government also made numerous allocations of Crown land within the country’s national parks and reserves where development is forbidden by law.

“No one should take for granted that if there were those in the past that were crooks, dishonest … (that) everybody that follows is of the same mind and mentality,” Williams said. “And the way we are trying to regulate, legislate seem to be saying in these documents, ‘I don’t trust you enough to manage your affairs in an honest and upright manner.’

“That is disrespectful, and it is something that really disturbs me because it is a reflection on the Turks and Caicos people generally, not a few persons that got themselves and the country into trouble.”

The new policy would require people who have pending applications for Crown land to make new applications, but forum members argued that those people should be given preference under the new policy in the order in which pending applications were submitted.

Llewellyn said it would be inefficient to do that with more than 6,000 pending applications, given the limited resources of the Crown Land Unit. “There are literally just boxes of them,” he said.

Llewellyn said he would look into finding a way to prioritize pending applications under the new policy.

Members also objected to a policy statement to deal sympathetically with people who settled illegally on Crown land “where a genuine need for housing has left little alternative,” referring mainly to squatters in the Five Cays area.

Residents who wrongly got Crown land grants in the Chalk Sound National Park have been denied building permission and offered relocation packages with other land. Some forum members said those people weren’t dealt with sympathetically, so neither should illegal squatters.

Llewellyn had sought to have the forum vote on several recommendations made by the public during his hearings on the proposed policy, including restricting future land grants to those who had never received Crown land in the past.

But the forum withheld votes on any aspect of the policy, instead deciding to make its recommendations in writing to Llewellyn for further review.

Another item on the forum’s agenda, a new road traffic amendment that included references to taxis, was deferred until the forum’s March meeting. Members said they only received the amendment several days before the meeting, and some were unable to read the electronic documents sent to them.

Click HERE to read the latest proposed policy.

Click HERE to read the 2005 policy.

For free Crown land maps and registers, go to www.tcilandinfo.tc.