Cotton Tree lots given to Belize City U.D.P. Area Reps – Elrington orchestrated it

Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington

Earlier this week the Cotton Tree Village Council took the government of Belize to court over two hundred and fifty four lots. Those lots, allegedly within the community, are part of a large plot which was acquired and then subdivided by government. The lots are allegedly being given to eight U.D.P. Area Representatives in Belize City to be distributed to their supporters. Today, since we had some time with Pickstock Area Representative Wilfred Elrington, we asked him for his take on the Cotton Tree land dispute. He told us that not only does he support the deal…he orchestrated it.

Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington, Pickstock Area Representative

“We have just delivered some forty-nine lots to people in the Pickstock area from the Cotton Tree neighbourhood. And let me explain to you how that came about. I have been an area representative in Pickstock for the past six years. I have always complained bitterly to the Cabinet that the residents of Pickstock don’t get lots. I need lots for the residents of Pickstock. That complaint largely fell on deaf ears. So I had a friend…a very dear friend of mine, a Taiwanese client whom I have known for twenty-five, thirty years who owned in excess of two hundred acres of land right across the highway from the village of Cotton Tree…not part of the village of Cotton Tree because you know the Cotton Tree Village is exclusively on the right hand of the highway when going down to Belize City. I persuaded him to sell that piece of land to the government specifically so that the people of Pickstock could get some lots. That is what happened. It had nothing to do with the village of Cotton Tree. It was private property, belonged to Ramon Seng, and I got the government to purchase it so that people of Pickstock could get the lots.”

Elrington says that a total of sixty lots were allocated to the residents of Pickstock. He also claims that the land is not located within Cotton Tree Village, since that village is only located on one side of the highway.