Land Minister was Required to Place Notice on Property in Question

Dean Barrow

According to Barrow, residents who own properties adjacent to the parcel in question had indicated to the San Pedro Town Council that they were essentially blocked off from access to the main road.

Dean Barrow, SC, Attorney-at-law

“It is the San Pedro Town Council that wrote to the prime minister and, I believe, that was copied to the Minister of Lands asking government to acquire this particular parcel because the San Pedro Town Council wanted to use it for construction of premises for use of the San Pedro police department and also, indeed, to provide some kind of right of way over that property.  The San Pedro Town Council suggested that there were people who were hemmed in, in terms of getting to the sort of main road, people who had properties behind this particular property.  So it appears from the correspondence we have seen that the San Pedro Town Council had at least two objectives in mind, but in terms of what the minister declared in the public notices, that was limited mainly for public easement. The law is quite clear, the minister was required not to publish his acquisition notices in the government gazette, but to place a copy of the notice on the property being acquired.  He did not do that.  He may have, the law allows him to, in lieu of putting a notice, a copy of the acquisition notice on the property itself, somewhere prominent in the area immediately adjoining the property.  He did not do that.  The law also said that after the declarations have been published, the minister is required to notify, apart from the public notice measure that the minister must take, the minister is required to let the owner or previous owner, since the acquisition takes effect once he’s finished with his publications, the minister is required to enter into discussions with that owner about the possibility of settling the matter, agreeing on a figure, a compensation figure which would then mean that the compulsory acquisition, having started in that form, would, as it were, mutate.”