Claudine Housen, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
LANDOWNERS IN western Jamaica will no longer have to endure the hassle of travelling into Kingston to process their documents. They can do so through the National Land Agency's (NLA) pilot project the region.
The project, which started on Monday at the NLA Regional Office at 3 Federal Avenue in Montego Bay, provides services in land titles and surveying - a first in Western Jamaica.
"What we are currently doing is running a pilot project for the National Land Agency (after) which we plan to open a regional office in Montego Bay to serve our customers who are located in and around this part of Jamaica," said NLA Acting Senior Deputy Registrar and Project Manager, Joan Walker.
"This (regional office) is directly in response to our customers' needs and with the agency's mandate to become more proactive and client focused organisation," she said, noting that the pilot project is focusing mainly on the land titles, surveying and mapping.
According to Ms. Walker, while the pilot project will not provide the full processing of documents in Montego Bay, it will complete the first state of service before it is sent to Kingston.
"The documents will be assessed, cashed and sent to our central office by air for further processing," she said.
Attorney-at-law Clayton Morgan, a member of one of the three law firms chosen for the pilot project, hailed the project and subsequent establishment of a regional land titles/ survey office as a step in the right direction.
"We (the western legal community) welcome this new development and we trust that it will be feasible," said Mr. Morgan. "This is a project for which attorneys have been lobbying a long time and (if it is successful) it will reduce the amount of time and money spent by client to obtain titles and other documents from the titles office in Kingston."
