The following is a statement by Dame Bernice Lake, QC, on behalf of the concerned citizens of Anguilla.

In this year 2005 and with the imminent passage of the Physical Planning Act 2005 , Anguilla and Anguillians are locked in a struggle for Anguilla’s own soul.

Whether Anguilla is victorious in that struggle and its soul snatched from the jaws of hell will depend on whether Anguillians are able to unite, set politics and prejudices of all forms aside and come out in clear and undeniable opposition to that Physical Planning Act. 2005. Anguillians need to say to the government with a loud and united voice, “This Land Policy which you would inflict upon us just cannot be.”
The survival of Anguilla’s soul will depend upon whether or not you accept and take for granted the assurances given by the Chief Minister and/or the Minister of Finance or whether you open your eyes to a clear understanding as to what that piece of legislation really means to do and is capable of doing to you in the future. Anguillians must understand the policy and thinking which stand be hind the Physical Planning Act 2005.
The key to that understanding is through something called the Draft National Land Use Plan which surfaced in Anguilla 1995 as the proposed policy for land management in Anguilla. It is and alien and Communist inspired policy at the heart of which stands the proposal to alter the distribution of land holding in Anguilla, to take a large portion of the land from the people and vest it in the Government.
Unless those selected groups and Churches have studied that Draft National Land Use Plan they will not be able to come to grips with the full scope of government’s policy and the damage which the Physical Planning Act 2005 will cause the people of Anguilla for generations to come.
We will show you why the Land Policy of the Draft National Land Use Plan is so alien to the people and so Communist inspired that no amount of tinkering and amendment of the Bill by the select groups of civil society, NGO’s and the grace of the Churches can save this proposed legislation and make it acceptable to the people as being in harmony with the people’s known way of life..
We will show you why cannot rely upon the assurances given by the Minister of Finance that you will not be dispossessed of your land through a government Land Bank
When the select groups and the Churches have studied that Draft National Land Use Plan and realize that the Physical Planning Act is designed to bring that land use policy into operation then they will realize that the assurances given by the Minister of Finance are meaningless and cannot stand the light of day.
So to-night we are going to spend a little time to come to an understanding as to what the Draft National land Use Plan is about and how it fits into the Physical Planning Act 2005 and is carried into operation by this proposed Bill.

What is the Government’s Policy as detailed in the Draft National Land Use Plan?
The Plan recognises that the way land is used is the principal defining aspect of any society. So too it is with Anguilla. Our spiritual approach to land has shaped us as a society and given us character as individuals.
Under the guise of preserving the land for future generations of Anguillians, the Plan advocates that government should effect a redistribution of land in Anguilla.

THE PLAN
The Plan recognizes:
1) That ninety-five percent (95%) of land in Anguilla is privately owned and held in small parcels.
2) That government owns little land in Anguilla and such as it has it is largely used for utility projects such as the Electricity Plant, the Airport, the Dump at Corritto and the Oil Bunker
3) The existence of the small tourism industry at the Western End of the Island, and noted that in the hotel industry for any island such as Anguilla the compatible national scale of land use for hotels should be 10-20 guest rooms per acre. It noted that the existing hotels fall way below that density. None of the existing hotels had built sufficient rooms so as to bring themselves within that ratio. They are holding much more land than the amount of built rooms can justify.

4) The existence of some sites of archaeological and historical interest and it lists them. All the historical sites on the list are on lands which fall within private ownership. It does not list as of historical interest The Old Court at Crocus Hill nor the historical site at Landsome Estate.

5) That there are two known strategies for land development The first is what they call Random Dispersed Development Strategy – that is development of a country without government’s intervention , direction and control, but inspired by its people’s creativity and built in accordance with its culture, traditions and legacies . That is how Anhguilla has developed up to now. The second strategy is what they call a Planned Concentration Development Strategy whereby government intervenes, controls and directs how land use should be managed and enjoyed. .

Recommendations of the Plan.
The Plan recommends the second strategy and advocates that the government of Anguilla should control land use by zoning and the creation of development plans which would :
a) Reserve land for new roads and public rights of way; close or divert existing ones and regulate the construction of such roads/rights of way and incidental works.
b) Regulate the size, height, use, setbacks, design/materials, location, density and site coverage of buildings.
c) Allocate/zone land for housing (and ancillary community facilities and amenities), commercial and industrial development.
d) Preserve buildings, case, sites and objects of historic, architectural, archaeological, ecological and cultural interest.
2. Recognising that 95% of the land is in private ownership and that the government owned very little land the Plan recommends that Government should in effect take the control over the privately owned land by legislation which would regulate land use, and by a system of public Land Banking.

3. The Plan sets out the policy on Land Banking.
It is a system whereby that 95% of land now held in private ownership in small parcels can be redistributed so that the Government can get in its ownership a larger share of the land than that which it now enjoys. And at your expense.

“10.5 Land Banking
Ninety-five percent (95%) of land in Anguilla is privately held in small parcels. While this situation may be highly desirable, it nevertheless presents serious constraints to rational land use planning and comprehensive development. Land assembly involves numerous individual owners and can be both expensive and time consuming. Similarly, attempts to ensure that adequate amounts of land are available in the most suitable locations to ensure timely provision of physical and social infrastructure are often frustrated by having to negotiate with multiple land owners.
Comprehensive land use planning, service provisions, and environmental management often require public sector access to fairly large and contiguous tracts of land. To facilitate this, the Plan recommends that the Government of Anguilla adopts the practice of land banking – acquiring land at existing use value when prices are relatively low in order to carry out development projects in the future when land prices may have increased to a level which makes acquisition more expensive at that time. The Plan further recommends that at all times the Government of Anguilla should seek to ensure that the amount of land acquired always exceeds the amount disposed of, so building a stock of land which is adequate to facilitate future development and to use as equity in development partnerships with the private sector.”

4. For the purposes of implementing the Land Bank the Plan makes two very important recommendations:
A) The first is the statutory method of how the land in private ownership could be compulsorily acquired by government and
B) The second is identifying sources of Finance for the implementation of the Plan.

5. With respect to (A) the Plan recommends that:
“The Land Acquisition Ordinance must facilitate the acquisition of land for public purposes….. It is also necessary that the Land Acquisition Ordinance facilitates the creation of a public Land Bank
We come then to the Physical Planning Act 2005 which is the legislative tool by which the Draft National Land Use Plan and the public Land Bank can be implemented and brought into effect.
It is for that reason that Section 9 (5) of the Physical Planning Act 2005 provides that the creation of a comprehensive development plan shall constitute a public purpose for the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act thereby empowering the government to compulsory acquire lands within a comprehensive development Plan and at suppressed market values. And without there being any immediate, identified public use.
Further, it is for that reason that section 15 (2) provides that the creation of a development plan shall be the principal reason for the compulsory acquisition of land designated as a comprehensive planning area.
And further, that upon any person applying for a development permit, the requirements of the plan shall be the guiding and over-riding factors taken in consideration whether to grant or not o grant that person’s application.
Indeed the Plan states quite clearly that the enactment of the Physical Planning legislation is an essential pre-requisite to the successful implementation of the Draft National Land Use Plan.

(B) Sources of Finance
Land Tax
The Plan also recommends sources of financing for the implementation of the Plan’s objectives including the Land Bank.
The Plan states that the funding mechanisms …may include, but not limited to :……..
“Use of revenue derived from property taxes to finance the provision of physical and social infrastructure.”

How does it differ from the planning practices now in operation?
At present the existing planning legislation represents what should be a benign guidance in partnership with the people as to how land should be used and developed. The legislation is permissive in scope; while the government is authorised to guide land use, it is not authorised to take over the ownership of land
In that regard, the Draft National Land Use Plan and its companion legislation, the Physical Planning Act 2005 are revolutionary. They condemn as undesirable and impracticable the existing broad-based distribution of land; they alter the scope and meaning of ‘public purpose’ in order to allow wide-spread acquisition of land so that government can get large tracks of land in its possession; they advocate and facilitate government becoming a speculator in the land market; to that end they target that 95% of the land held in small parcels so that everybody is at risk for losing their land to an ever gobbling-up administration – as government disposes of land it must make further acquisitions to keep its holdings topped up; it ensures that government pays the land owner a pittance for its land;

HISTORY The PLAN and The PHYSICAL PLANNING ACT 2005
The Plan envisages legislation as the main plank for the implementation of the policies within the land use programme.
The Plan says that it noted that Anguilla has a history of failed legislation on land matters. By that it meant that more often than not, the government has not been able to enforce the laws it passed Anguillla affecting and dealing with land
By that the Plan was no doubt referring to the law for the re-imposition of Land Taxes and property taxes generally passed by Bradshaw in the 1960’s and the Land Control Ordinance passed by Bradshaw in 1966. Deal with the passage of those laws and how they were ignored.
In particular the notes the existence of planning legislation which has been ineffectual in the past As a consequence the Plan recommends the passage of the kind of law as shown in the Physical Planning Act 2005. Its intention is to effect a redistribution of the land giving government a larger shareholding and bringing Anguillaians under subjection to the scheme for planning control.
“The early customising, adoption and enactment of the draft Model Physical Planning Legislation for the OECS and Anguilla is an essential pre-requisite to the successful implementation of the National Land Use Plan.” - p. 116
And so the Plan recommends the adoption of the Physical Planning Act which surfaced in 2001 and again in 2005.

United Front’s Manifesto 2005
That Manifesto lists the implementation of the Draft National Land Use Plan together with the Physical Planning legislation and regulations as one of the top priorities of the United Front’s programmes for 2005 and beyond. In that regard, it takes on board the very language of the Draft National Land Use Plan –
“The early customising, adoption and enactment of the …..Physical Planning Legislation …………is an essential pre-requisite to the successful implementation of the National Land Use Plan.”

a) Land Bank
The Land Bank is an essential component of the Draft National Land Use Plan and the implementation of the Land Bank is therefore given top priority by the Government. So too increased taxation on property is recommended as one of the principal sources of funding to meet the goals of the Plan.
The Land Bank and property tax including land tax are therefore part of the priorities of the 2005 Manifesto. (Remember Mr. Banks’ remark – ‘There is no point in owning a Cadillac if you can’t buy the gas’)
It is clear that the Minister is deceiving the people of Anguilla when in his address he sought to assure the public that the United Front has no design to arbitrarily acquire land owners’ property to establish a Land Bank. The compulsory acquisition of land for the creation of a Land Bank is one of the top priorities of the United Front’s programmes for Anguilla.

b) Land Tax
And the taxes on property is one of the priority programmes for securing from the people the funding to implement the Plan.
Taxation is a means of forced transfer of one person’s property and assets into the hands of another.

WHO IS AT RISK TO LOSE THEIR LAND TO GOVERNMENT?
The answer is –“With the exception of the hotels, everybody is at risk – the holder of small parcels as well as the holder of large parcels. Indeed the Plan targets that 95% of the land which is held in small parcels.
The Draft National Land Use Plan expressly says so. It says that the fact that 95% of the land in Anguilla is held in small parcels creates and constitutes a stumbling block to government’s goal of owning a larger share of the land in Anguilla. It postulates that government should become the holder of large tracks of land by an ongoing process of compulsory acquisition.
The United Front’s programme for planned housing communities will supplant the traditional growth of villages. – Gumbs’ neighbourhood, Proctors neighbourhood, Hodge’s neighbourhood, Websters’ neighbourhood all developed out of family ties to the land and that I will give way to the promotion of communities to be established by government upon land which the government will need to acquire. That will require some comprehensive planning and if your acre parcel falls within that planning area, then your acre stands exposed to compulsory acquisition.
Of particular vulnerability are those people who have built without any planning permit .
D) Bradshaw Laws were referred to three (3) times in the Minister of Finance” Speech. He has reminded you that they were applicable planning laws in force since the Bradshaw days.. Whole villages have expanded by buildings which are not covered by any planning permits under Bradshaw’s laws Mr. Webster did not enforce those laws. In fact for a long time there was no planning department here. Bradshaw’s Central Housing and Planning Authority did not operate here.
The Physical Planning Act 2005 will at last give force to Bradshaw’s planning laws. The Bill classifies those buildings as an unlawful use of land. They are therefore subject to demolition orders, should the government’s planned programmes make that necessary.

E) What puts all of land owners, large and small, existing or future owners at risk:
(i) is that the Plan intends for Government to take over your land and become a player and partner in the investment activities which may come to the island. That makes the government joint venture owners both with foreign investors and their local friends and cohorts.
(ii) The unlawful use of land gives them an opportunity to take your land and housing to create planned housing communities.- Once a development plan is approved showing an area of land to be a comprehensive planning area.
(iii) The proposed taxation of property to provide revenue to pay for the land to be acquired and for the provision of physical and social infrastructure and the obligations assumed by government to Flag Luxury to construct roads and other infrastructure for the project with the tax-payer footing the bill while Flag is exempt from paying tax.
(iv) The unlimited scope of ‘public purpose’ as authorised by the Physical Planning Act 2005. It is totally different from the law on Eminent Domain which even with the recent expanded ruling of the Supreme Court in the USA which limits a public purpose to an existing need and a present use.

THE INCUBATION PERIOD OF THE DRAFT NATIONAL LAND USE PLAN And THE PHYSICAL PLANNING ACT 2005 SPANS A PERIOD OF TEN YEARS. WHY???
The reason why the Concerned group has called for a meeting with all the elected members of the House of Assembly is that with the exception the Hon. Mc. Rogers all the other elected members were members of the government of Anguilla when the DRAFT NATIONAL LAND USE PLAN was going through its incubation period. 1995 -2005

THE BILL OUGHT NOT TO BE ALLOWED TO SURVIVE BECAUSE THE WHOLE SUPERSTRUCTURE OF THE BILL RESTS UPON THE FOUNDATION OF APPROVED DEVELOPMENT PLANS WHICH EMBRACE THE COMPPREHENSIVE PLANNING AREA.

AND THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF THE PROVISIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT PLANS IN SECTIONS 9 AND 15 ISTO PROVIDE THE INSTRUMENT FOR COMPULSORY ACQUISITION OF LAND FOR THE PURPOSES OF THE LAND BANK The land bank and the taxes are to be the sources to facilitate the politicians activity in land dealing, investment and entrepreneurship, all to your detriment.
The Land Bank and the Taxes are the recommendations of the Draft National Land Use Plan.
THAT IS THE Draft National Land Use Plan which the 2005 Manifesto has given top priority. Together with the legislation and regulations they form the new scheme fo redistribution of land.
That is the NEW SYSTEM of land control and use which the 2005 Manifesto of the United Front has given top priority for implementation.

Now is IMPLEMENTATION TIME.

DON’T SAY THAT THEY WOULD NOT DO THAT.

THE QUESTION IS – WHY GIVE THEM THE POWER TO DO IT IF THEY SHOULD GO SO CRAZY AND DECIDE TO DO IT?

WHY GIVE THEM THE POWER WHEN THEY HAVE BEEN CRAZY ENOUGH TO THINK UP THE POWER?

CONSULTATIVE GROUPS

Before you lock into that system of consultation ask the leaders of the Church if they have read the DRAFT NATIONAL LAND USE PLAN.?
Ask the members of the CIVIC GROUPS AND THE NGOS’ if they have read the DRAFT LAND USE PLAN ?

Ask those newly arrived Anguilian lawyers who do not share our history and legacy if they have read the DRAFT NATIONAL LAND USE PLAN?

When Government produces that document which was on show in the Library in 1995, AND THOSE CHRUCH LEADERS AND CIVIC GROUPS HAVE READ IT, then we can have a meaningful discussion and consultation about whether or not we need any Physical Planning Legislation and if so what kind of legislation.

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