The Barbuda Council has fired back at the central government in forceful terms, rejecting what it describes as a deliberate campaign to mislead the public and manufacture consent for a luxury real estate market on the sister isle — while court proceedings over the very same issue continue this week.
In a press release issued on Wednesday for immediate release, the Council took direct aim at recent Cabinet pronouncements regarding a plan to establish a land registry and begin selling land in Barbuda — announcements that have now appeared in multiple media outlets.
"These pronouncements have been coming out of Cabinet over the past several years and are designed to mislead and to attempt to manufacture consent," the Council stated bluntly. "They are designed to convince potential property buyers and speculators to participate in a luxury real-estate market that does not exist in Barbuda."
Facebook link to the Barbuda Council's press release: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1LL6sXd24q/
A Constitutional and Legal Battle
The Council's response goes beyond political disagreement — it is rooted in a constitutional framework that the body says the central government is attempting to circumvent.
The Barbuda Local Government Act (1976), as amended and entrenched in the Constitution of Antigua and Barbuda, empowers the Barbuda Council with responsibility to administer the island of Barbuda. The Council argues that the Land Adjudication Act and any other legislation the Browne administration seeks to deploy cannot supersede that constitutional mandate.
"The ongoing plan of the Gaston Browne Administration to use the Land Adjudication Act and other laws that do not supersede the Local Government Act to unilaterally register and sell the People's land will not be accepted or allowed," the press release states.
