Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

Lands in hands! Wheatley pushes for greater land ownership

Lands in hands! Wheatley pushes for greater land ownership

Ninth District Representative Vincent Wheatley has appealed for a greater distribution of lands for the people of the BVI, especially on the island of Virgin Gorda.
“We have to get the lands in people’s hands. There’s only one thing left to do — to get the criteria published,” the former Minister for Natural Resources said while appearing on the Virgin Islands Party’s (VIP) Let’s Talk show earlier this week.

Wheatley said infrastructure such as roads are already in place for the community and argued that the issue of getting lands distributed is of critical importance to him and to the people of Virgin Gorda.

Wheatley, who served as portfolio Minister during the Andrew Fahie led-VIP government, said work on the Gun Creek area in Virgin Gorda must also be sorted out with some level of urgency. “We got to get Gun Creek Harbour taken care of. Again, enough of this talk. Let’s get it done,” Wheatley said. “I’ve been hearing this talk for the last, probably 15, 20 years. Let’s get it done.”

While noting that there is a need for bathrooms in the Savannah Bay area, he said that he could not forgive the previous National Democratic Party (NDP) administration for not extracting land at Savannah Bay from a lease that the party reportedly renewed while it was in office.

“It could have been almost like a little Cane Garden Bay, but I guess persons didn’t see it fit to empower the people of Virgin Gorda to get that back,” he stated.

Unfettered discretion

Wheatley came under scrutiny during the Commission of Inquiry (COI) for his handling of some land matters while serving as the Natural Resources Minister, including a $10 million land deal with an unnamed developer that the Attorney General said back then was brought to Cabinet prematurely as well as a parcel of land leased by Delta Petroleum.

Wheatley told the COI that the urgency of the land deal matter centred around the lack of commercial activity during the middle of the global pandemic and explained that the then-Fahie Administration had been trying to inject economic activity into the territory.

The COI concluded in its report that the disposal of Crown Land is an area where decisions were taken by Ministers without any published criteria about the assessment of applications. It added that assessments are made in the unfettered discretion of the Minister, and approved by Cabinet in their unfettered discretion.

“Under pressure from successive Governors (who have consistently expressed concern about the lack of proper process for these disposals), the Ministry is now reviewing the framework, mechanisms and overall governance with a view to bringing the management of Crown Land within a statutory framework. Such a review is long overdue,” the report stated.

Wheatley is seeking re-election in the Ninth District as a candidate for the Virgin Islands Party.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×