EE family was 'blindsided' over land acquisition– Hon Fraser
He was speaking last evening April 1, 2015 on VIP’s Let’s Talk radio show heard on ZBVI 780 AM.
The family had made it public that they are not pleased over the recent Motion which was moved by Premier and Minister of Finance Dr The Hon D. Orlando Smith during the Fourth Sitting of the Fourth Session of the Second House of Assembly on March 19, 2015. It received 7 votes for its passage.
Section 3 (1) of the Land Acquisition Ordinance (Cap. 222) provides that, if the Cabinet considers that any land should be acquired for a public purpose, it may – with the approval of the House of Assembly – cause a declaration for the acquisition to be made by the Cabinet Secretary. This was agreed on by Cabinet in February 2015.
The parcel of land, said to be approximately half of an acre, originally belonged to a Mr Steadman Penn but is now family owned.
Mr Michael ‘Marlo’ Chinnery, the grandson of Mr Penn, speaking exclusively to Virgin Islands News Online in the presence of other family members and other sympathetic persons in the 7th and 8th Districts had said the family was not willing to sell the land as they had plans to develop it.
“[This was] another troubling matter that was brought to the House by the Government, and it was a resolution to compulsorily acquire a piece of property in the East End area. I am one of those persons who vehemently oppose compulsory acquisition,” Honourable Fraser said on the show.
He added, “When you do compulsory acquisition it has to be absolutely and totally necessary for me to support it.”
He said when he first saw the resolution he questioned it and the reasons he was given seemed palatable and plausible. “I debated the motion and in my contribution I asked did you exhaust all possible avenues for negotiations to reach an amicable settlement on this particular item. I was not convinced that the Government really cared to entertain any discussion on this matter,” he said.
Compensation money will evaporate
“I even went as far as to suggest that Government offer the family as a means of compensation a piece of land at Wickham's Cay as opposed to some measly compensation of a few dollars which will evaporate after it is divided up among the many beneficiaries and they will never know what happened to the money but they will know that the land is gone,” he said.
Honourable Fraser said that when it comes to land owned by Virgin Islanders and those lands that are inherited, “I don’t see anybody going near them for any reason.”
He said that after the resolution was passed in the House of Assembly and the families got in touch with him, “I heard things that made me cringe.” He said the family was unaware of the process and did not know what happened to them. “They just got slapped, blindsided,” he said.
“I still don’t believe that it is too late now for the Government to exercise some conscience and deal with this family in an amicable way,” said Honourable Fraser.
See our previous report:
http://www.virginislandsnewsonline.com/en/news/ee-family-upset-over-ndp-land-grab
19 Responses to “EE family was 'blindsided' over land acquisition– Hon Fraser”
This is the issue that the VIP is riding to election?
If this is how you think Maynard is going to beat Dr. Pickering I have news for you. She will get a worst beating than what Allen got, just wait and see.