St James Parish Council to re-value Bogue Lands
WESTERN BUREAU — As the controversy into the St James Parish Council’s Bogue Lands deepened yesterday, deputy mayor, Gerard Mitchell, made it clear that he would be calling for a revaluation of the 10.5-acre property.
The land in question is prime commercial real estate but it has been captured by squatters. Among the illegal occupants, Mitchell confirmed yesterday, was the brother of State Minister of National Security, Derrick Kellier.
The National Land Agency recently valued the land at $20 million but Mitchell, who along with Kellier and Barrett represents the ruling People’s National Party, stressed yesterday that independent valuators would have to be called in to ascertain the true value of the land.
The land has been shrouded in controversy for more than a year.
Last June, then Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) caretaker for West Central St James, Clive Mullings accused the council of leasing the Bogue lands to councillors and their family members.
In response, mayor Hugh Solomon denied having any knowledge of such activity and the Council launched a probe into the matter.
The Council later reported that the claim was unfounded.
On Tuesday, Powell announced that the Council has decided to regularise the status of the roughly 18 squatters on the property, igniting another round of criticism from the JLP.
The party’s councillor/candidate for the Montego West Central Division, Charles Sinclair, accused the predominantly-PNP Council of using the land regularisation process as a political ploy. There have also been accusations of cronyism in the allotment process.
But yesterday, Mitchell maintained that the process was being done in a transparent manner and accused the JLP candidate of trying to gain “cheap political mileage” from the issue.
“They are trying to give people the impression that council is encouraging, or councillors have land out there,” the deputy mayor said.
“In the case of councillor (for the Canterbury Division, Roxroy) Barrett, his father initially had a lease agreement with the Council before the life of this present Council and Kellier’s brother captured it like anybody else,” Mitchell said.
Yesterday, MP Kellier, told the Observer that he supports the Council’s decision to regularise the land.
Squatter settlements, he argued, are regularised as a matter of course and there was nothing abnormal about the current situation.
“I don’t see (the reason for) all the excitement about the Bogue Lands,” Kellier said.
“But in respect of who is there on the land, I have no brief holding for anybody down there whether it is my brother or otherwise,” the state minister added. “Anybody who is there, trying to make a living and employing people, we need not try to reverse history; what we need to do is try and regularise them as soon as possible.”