by Charles Gladden
BELIZE CITY, Thurs. May 25, 2023
The Ministry of Natural Resources made the YMCA building, on Faber’s Road in the Port Loyola area on the south side of Belize City, its home for three days until Friday, May 26, as they hosted a mobile land clinic. “We haven’t been on the south side; we save the best for last, and we are starting in Port Loyola because Mister Gilroy has been very determined to have us here, and so we are glad to be here,” said Minister of Natural Resources, Hon. Cordel Hyde.
Since being elected into office in 2020, Lands Minister Hyde has been traveling throughout the country, bringing the Lands Department to Belizeans who have queries about their land titles or other land related matters but have difficulties going to the Lands Department in Belmopan.
Minister Hyde expressed to local reporters who stopped by the first day of the land clinic on Wednesday, May 24, that some of the issues residents are facing are the status of their land in addition to the purchasing of a parcel.
“We’re taking care of some issues for people that date back in one instance 35 years. A family lived on the land or lives on the land on Penn Road from the 1980s and have not been able to get the land surveyed, have not been able to get any kind of papers, so we are in the process of getting that done for them. We have another instance where a lady, deceased, left the land and they have been creating all kinds of problems for the daughter to get the land. As it turns out, it’s a lease land, and the lease has expired for so long that that daughter could have applied for that land some time ago, because there is no one else applying for it, objecting or enquiring. So, it’s those kinds of issues we are dealing with, in addition to people applying for their purchase prices and their lease approvals and land certificates,” he explained.
Area Representative of Port Loyola, Hon. Gilroy Usher expressed his gratitude to the Lands Department for stopping by his area.
“I want to say sincere thanks to the Ministry of Natural Resources, particularly the Deputy PM, Cordel Hyde, and all the residents of Port Loyola for taking advantage of this very important land clinic in the division,” Usher said.
One Port Loyola resident expressed great pleasure as he is now a landowner. “Me and my wife are so grateful we finally getting a piece of land. We got our paper today, and we can finally say that we own a piece of our country,” he said.
The last land clinic held was in Cayo North earlier this month.