Land twist

GOVERNMENT IS FACING LEGAL ACTION over the acquisition of private land for its ongoing housing project at Constant, St George.Managing director of Constant Estates Limited (CEL), Christopher Robinson, is accusing the Government of compulsorily acquiring land belonging to his family to build a housing estate after his company was refused permission to develop the same land for residential purposes.Robinson told the SUNDAY SUN the land comprised part of a larger parcel of 15 acres for which CEL had submitted three applications to the Town Planning Department to subdivide from other lands for the purpose of residential development.“The first one was in 1987 which asked for 15 1/2 acres. It was refused. On appeal the Government gave five acres.” In 1998, Robinson said the Government entered into an agreement with his elderly and ill father Ian Robinson, who was managing director of Constant Estates Limited at that time.Robinson said his father entered into a private treaty with Government.“He even used their lawyer because he wanted a letter from the Government saying they would not throw him out of his home because CEL owed a significant amount of money [to Barbados Agricultural Credit Trust] – allegedly. “I say that now because I am under legal advice that that loan is no longer a valid loan in that it is statute-barred, under the Limitations Act, from collection,” he said. Robinson explained that in 1998 the land (five and a half acres) passed from Constant Estates Limited to the Government for less than that paid at the open market.Robinson said that in 2008 he submitted another application for the remainder of the land to be subdivided so his company could develop it. He said he heard nothing from the Chief Town Planner’s Office, but yet Government subsequently compulsorily acquired it.Robinson, grandson of Barbados’ first post-Independence Senate President Sir Stanley Robinson and son of horticulturist Jean Robinson, said he spoke to and corresponded with Prime Minister David Thompson about the issue on several occasions.“Government, through its agency the Town & Country Planning Department, has treated Constant Estates Limited in an unconstitutional fashion.“They have restrained Constant Estates Limited from utilising its own assets, its own land, refused it permission to subdivide and develop, and yet taken it for the identical purpose,” he said.Robinson added: “I have given this Government adequate time and I am sick and tired . . . . They are using the Land Acquisition Act to take land from Constant Estates Limited to fund their housing programme.“We have not received one penny for that land. We have had one meeting with the minister . . . .”Robinson said Constant Estates Limited comprised 419 acres of primarily Zone 1 land which was unavailable for development.Wanted to subdivide“What the Government took from us – in the 15 acres – was the only land that we had for development. So when we said to the Government back in the late 1980s and early 1990s that we wanted to subdivide the land, our reason was to pay them back their loan. “But what the Government preferred to do is make it impossible for us to pay back the loan and perhaps take everything from us. And that is restraint of trade and trampling on our Constitutional rights,” he said.He suggested the Land Acquisition Act as presently constituted needed to be changed as it allowed Government to take private land on a promise and never pay for it.When contacted Minister of Housing and Lands Michael Lashley said Cabinet had just been in the process of dealing with compensation to landowners dating back over ten years under the previous administration.He said Robinson’s situation would be looked into.