Crown Land Consultancy Review to be released in mere Days, says TCI Premier

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, July 25, 2022 – The Crown land consultancy review that was commissioned in January will be available  any day now according to premier Washington Misick.

“I am pleased to say that to date the consultants have carried out face to face and virtual discovery interviews with a wide range of stakeholders — we will be presented with a report at the end of July.”

Misick explained that the two consultants jointly hired by the Turks and Caicos Islands Government and the UK had looked at several key issues which residents and stakeholders had raised.

“They looked at a number of issues clustered under the following broad headings:  residential land conditional purchase leases, commercial land, crown land, the crown land unit, disposal processes, illegal occupation and marine and Coastal land.”

The Consultants will use these findings to inform their recommendations which are highly anticipated.  The distribution of Crown Land has become a bone of contention for islanders in the past decade and Misick noted that the main concern was the availability of residential land on terms to which Turks and Caicos Islanders agreed.

While it was not guaranteed that any changes would be made to the existing policy Both Misick and Governor Nigel Dakin have in the past expressed confidence that the consultation would bring actionable change to the way the Crown Land system operates in the Turks and Caicos.

Premier Misick had initially said, “This is an exciting first step to implementing improvements in the Crown land management system that will benefit all Turks and Caicos Islanders and improve access to Crown land across our island chain.”

The Governor was also convinced that a review of the policy was needed. He said he anticipated the recommendations which would come from it and maintained that the recommendations would be quickly followed by implementation.  Among the hopes for the government was, to action an affordable housing program under the rebooted Department of Housing.

Opposition leader Edwin Astwood has supported that Crown Land management should be back in the hands of Islanders, under a Ministry in the TCIG.