MONTEGO BAY, St James

Agriculture and Lands Minister, Roger Clarke, yesterday broke ground for a $9 million expansion of the regional office of the National Land Agency (NLA) in Montego Bay, in what he said forms part of a “vision” to decentralise its services and to address more effectively the needs of persons in western Jamaica.

“Today’s ground-breaking ceremony and the official start for the construction of the NLA Western Regional office is a culmination of more than a year of hard work to realise our aspiration to decentralise services and to more effectively meet the needs of persons on this side of the island,” Clarke said at the brief ground-breaking ceremony at Federal Avenue in the resort city. “The vision was to provide services ranging from registration of transfers and mortgages, notation of death and marriages, to application to register land and the lodging of survey plans,” he added.

The services of the NLA Western Office was extended in May 2006 to accommodate the processing of some land titles and survey materials, as well as most of the procedures normally carried out in the central office in Kingston.

Previously, the office offered only land valuation services.

But since the expansion of its services in Montego Bay concerns have been raised about the inadequate space at the existing facility.

Clarke argued yesterday that if the country is serious about rural development and maintaining viable activity and high standards of living in areas outside of Kingston, then ways will have to be found to provide sustainable services to rural and semi-urban communities.

” We must be able to offer viable options to those persons who will never find it convenient to go to Kingston on a regular basis. The expansion of this regional office is therefore a long time coming,” he stressed.

Work on the project will be undertaken by the National Works Agency and is excepted to last for three months.