Head of National Industrial and Commercial Investment Ltd (NICIL) Winston Brassington was back in Linden on Monday to formalise the selling off of several plots of lands which fall under the purview of the Linmine Secretariat/NICIL.
Brassington subsequently disclosed that just over 80 plots were put up for bids and there were more than 800 applications.
He added that there was a great demand for land in the Linden area. He held in-depth discussions with representatives of the Regional Democratic Council and the Linden Town Council, among other agencies.
High on the agenda were unoccupied plots at Fair’s Rust, Watooka and Noitegedacht. The plots were put up for bid by the company. “To date about seventy persons have signed up for the plot that they bid for. This tells us of the great demand for land in the Linden area,” Brassington said.
The lowest bid was $150,000 and the highest bid was $4M but the applicant in the latter case did not sign up, leaving the highest bid approved at $300,000.
Despite the overwhelming response, some applicants were asking that the NICIL/Linmine Secretariat take on the cost for some of the necessary infrastructural works, since they had to pay such high prices for the lands. They said that 99% of the lands were in swampy areas and required the laying of extensive foundations before construction. While Brassington said he could not make any promise to offset costs for the development of the lands, he will negotiate with some of the entities with whom other infrastructural responsibilities lay for some form of consideration on the part of the residents.
Areas at Industrial Area and the Linmine Constabulary Compound at McKenzie, Coomacka, Nothinghamshire and Sybrian, were also discussed. In the case of Industrial Area, residents have already constructed homes on a lease arrangement but they have been calling for the lands to be sold to them and titles given.
Coomacka, Nothinghamshire and Sybrian were meanwhile put on the front-burners, after Interim Management Committee Chairman Orin Gordon raised the issue. According to Chief Executive Officer of Linmine Secretariat Horace James, the areas have not been forgotten. While the lands are to be sold off, James noted that the process has been significantly delayed due to the tardy movement of the Lands and Surveys Department.
James explained that around $4M has been paid to the Lands and Surveys Department since 2005 to do surveys of the areas but the department has been delaying. Mark Peters, a Lands and Surveys official, said that the surveys were done but undertook to check the status with his superiors.
James suggested that the surveys were not done properly. Brassington said that an investigation will be done. “I am concerned about us writing big cheques and not getting the deserved returns so I am expecting that you follow-up and see exactly what the problem is and let’s get this done with,” he told Peters.
