The Senate, on Wednesday, took up debate on an amendment to the Registered
Land Act, which is designed to bring all lands in the state of Antigua and Barbuda
under a common registry of lands.
Mover of the bill in the Upper House, Senator Samantha Marshall, noted that
currently lands on Barbuda are not registered at the Land Registry located in St.
John’s. It was also noted that the Privy Council, in a recent ruling determined that
the lands of both Antigua and Barbuda are registered in the crown. Sen. Marshall
said it was only prudent that the government would move to have the lands on
Barbuda formally registered.
“The purpose of this bill is to make provisions for the registration of any person
who is entitled to be registered as a proprietor of any land which is registered in the
name of the crown. It will also prohibit any dealing of any lands until the person
who should be registered as proprietor is so registered. Additionally, I believe this
bill also addresses what was declared by the Privy Council that dealt with the
ownership of the lands in Barbuda and to whom those lands would be vested. It
was declared that those lands are vested in the crown,” she explained.
Sen. Marshall emphasized that the new amendments to the bill make it clear that it
applies to lands in the state of Antigua and Barbuda. She added that the
government was only doing ‘the right thing’ to ensure that the language, as laid
down by the Privy Council, is therefore reflected in the bill.
“What this has done is to make it very clear that the Registered Land Act applies to
the state of Antigua and Barbuda,” she remarked.
The Barbuda Council appointee in the Senate, Sen. Fabian Jones voiced objections
to the provisions of the bill noting that it will remove from the Council the
authority to administer the lands on the sister island.
He said this situation will likely cause conflict, as it appears that the Council may
be unwilling to relinquish its current controls of the land. It was the Council that
took the land issue to the Privy Council where it lost its case.
In her contribution, Barbudan Senator on the Government side, Senator Knacyntar
Nedd described the current land distribution system in Barbuda as one based on
friendship and other considerations. She gave an example of her situation where
she sent an application for a piece of land over two years ago and, to date, she has
not been successful. This, as other persons whose applications were tendered after
hers, have been able to get multiple plots.
The Council has long been promoting the idea of landownership in Common for
Barbuda, but this notion has never been successfully tried in a court of law.
