While recognising that there are a number of overgrown and unmaintained lands in well-developed communities – posing several challenges for residents – Minister of Housing and Water Collin Croal has explained that the government has no intention of moving to repossess those properties.
When asked about the situation during a press conference last week, Minister Croal explained that “we have a department that sends out letters to persons to encourage construction, etc. and that is as far as we have been going.”
Minister Croal admitted that “many of the local authorities themselves have been complaining”, explaining, however, that those entities are empowered to deal with the situation.
“They have an arm of the law that they can apply whereby they can have such de-bushed or cleared and then they can put that towards the taxes,” he explained.
The Housing Minister noted that moving to repossess those lands would be challenging, especially since persons would own those properties.
“Many of these lands, the persons already have ownership or their titles…this government, we have not repossessed any land and we don’t intend to do that,” he said.
In many developed communities, there exists a large number of unmaintained and overgrown properties, posing a number of challenges for residents.
In addition to being unsightly, the overgrown lands would often harbour pests and pose security concerns for residents.
