RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Faced with in­creased flood­ing, some of which is caused by in­dis­crim­i­nate de­vel­op­ment, both the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning Di­vi­sion (TCPD) and the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA) say their abil­i­ty to pe­nalise of­fend­ers can oc­cur on­ly when re­ports are made. 

In fact, the EMA says mon­i­tor­ing of these of­fences are the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of TCPD and the re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions about the block­ing and di­vert­ing of wa­ter­cours­es in South Oropouche which has ex­ac­er­bat­ed flood­ing, the au­thor­i­ty said, “The EMA’s re­sponse has to be with­in the con­text of iden­ti­fy­ing agen­cies with pri­ma­ry re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for de­vel­op­ments on land and ap­provals for any at­tempts to di­vert the main wa­ter­course.”

The EMA not­ed that the TCPD and the re­spec­tive re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions are among the list of pri­ma­ry agen­cies with re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for these de­vel­op­ment ac­tiv­i­ties.

“Flood­ing is a by-prod­uct of sev­er­al cir­cum­stances, name­ly de­for­esta­tion, poor land-use prac­tices, ur­ban­i­sa­tion, im­prop­er waste dis­pos­al, un­planned and unau­tho­rised de­vel­op­ment, squat­ting and il­le­gal quar­ry­ing, for which there is leg­is­la­tion spe­cif­ic to the afore­men­tioned ac­tiv­i­ties,” the EMA said.

Mean­while, Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Camille Robin­son-Reg­is, un­der whose au­thor­i­ty the TCPD falls, told Guardian Me­dia the Gov­ern­ment is al­so in­ves­ti­gat­ing the use of Ge­o­graph­ic In­for­ma­tion Sys­tems (GIS) to sup­port in­spec­tors and plan­ners.

“On-the-ground mon­i­tor­ing of projects to en­sure that de­vel­op­ers are hon­est and fol­low the ap­proved plans is be­ing ad­dressed through ca­pac­i­ty build­ing to pro­vide the re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions and oth­er agen­cies with the man­pow­er need­ed,” Robin­son-Reg­is said.

She not­ed that the dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion of the TCPD has start­ed with an aim to im­prov­ing ser­vice to the pub­lic.

“This trans­for­ma­tion, in train since 2018, in­cludes digi­ti­sa­tion of lega­cy doc­u­ments, the trans­for­ma­tion of ser­vice and au­toma­tion of the con­struc­tion per­mit­ting process,” she added.

“As of June 2021, the TCPD has com­plet­ed the large scale digi­ti­sa­tion of 100,288 files and ap­pli­ca­tion doc­u­ments as part of digi­ti­sa­tion project, phase I, which cov­ered its north and south re­gion­al of­fices. This achieve­ment in­volved the dig­i­tal con­ver­sion of 1,524 plot­ting maps; 2,935 sub­di­vi­sion lay­outs and 95,829 green file ap­pli­ca­tions. Green file ap­pli­ca­tions are for per­mis­sion to de­vel­op land and con­sist of out­line ap­provals and fi­nal per­mis­sion for plan­ning ap­pli­ca­tions,” Robin­son-Reg­is added.

She not­ed that this re­duces the need for vault space, re­duces the time tak­en to ac­cess TCPD da­ta and lega­cy in­for­ma­tion and sup­ports the Gov­ern­ment’s digi­ti­sa­tion agen­da. Train­ing of staff has al­so start­ed. 

“The oth­er arm of the trans­for­ma­tion process, De­vel­opTT, which is the au­to­mat­ed con­struc­tion per­mit­ting sys­tem, al­lows builders and de­vel­op­ers to ap­ply for plan­ning per­mis­sion, stamp du­ty ex­emp­tion cor­re­spon­dence and sta­tus of land cor­re­spon­dence on­line. De­vel­opTT con­nects WASA, Drainage Di­vi­sion, Fire, the EMA and the re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions and al­lows users to track ap­pli­ca­tions in re­al-time, make queries and re­ceive up to date in­for­ma­tion on their ap­pli­ca­tions,” she said.

She added, “This will al­low the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of po­ten­tial­ly prob­lem­at­ic de­vel­op­ment re­quests and al­low the users and agen­cies to find a way to ad­dress them.”

Process of deal­ing with

il­le­gal land de­vel­op­ment

The Min­is­ter of Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment may, with­in four years of de­vel­op­ment be­ing car­ried out with­out the grant­i­ng of plan­ning per­mis­sion, or con­trary to con­di­tions stip­u­lat­ed in the plan­ning per­mis­sion, take en­force­ment ac­tion against the own­er and oc­cu­pi­er of the land.

This is the pro­ce­dure:

• Com­plaint re­ceived from any mem­ber of the pub­lic with the re­quired ac­com­pa­ny­ing in­for­ma­tion

• Com­plaint File is opened at the re­spec­tive TCPD re­gion­al of­fice and as­signed to an of­fi­cer for in­ves­ti­ga­tion. This in­cludes col­lect­ing rel­e­vant in­for­ma­tion and vis­it­ing the site

• If the statu­to­ry records in­di­cate that plan­ning per­mis­sion has been grant­ed for the de­vel­op­ment un­der­tak­en and the de­vel­op­ment con­forms to the ap­proved plans, the mat­ter is closed

• If it is found that unau­tho­rised de­vel­op­ment has in­deed been un­der­tak­en, but the mat­ter does not fall with­in the purview of the T&CP Act (eg, the site is with­in a riv­er, drain or high­way re­serve; lo­cat­ed on State lands, or de­vel­op­ment falls with­in the ju­ris­dic­tion of the EMA); the rel­e­vant gov­ern­ment agency is in­formed and the mat­ter is then closed at the TCPD

• Oth­er­wise, a let­ter of ad­vice and is for­ward­ed to the com­plainant, who has to re­spond with­in 28 days by sub­mis­sion of an ap­pli­ca­tion and or, for dis­cus­sion of the mat­ter

• Fail­ure to com­ply by sub­mis­sion of an ap­pli­ca­tion, or of any re­quest­ed in­for­ma­tion re­sults in re­ports be­ing pre­pared for sub­mis­sion to the Ho­n­ourable Min­is­ter for con­sid­er­a­tion of en­force­ment ac­tion

• Once con­sid­ered, the file is for­ward­ed to the Le­gal Ser­vices Unit of the min­istry for prepa­ra­tion of the en­force­ment no­tice. The file with the no­tice is for­ward­ed by the TCPD to the Ho­n­ourable Min­is­ter for sig­na­ture. Once signed, the en­force­ment no­tice is served and a 56-day pe­ri­od is giv­en for com­pli­ance

• Fail­ure to com­ply with the en­force­ment no­tice re­sults in the file be­ing for­ward­ed to the Le­gal Ser­vices Unit for prepa­ra­tion of the com­plaint with­out oath and sum­mons to the de­fen­dant. The mat­ter then pro­ceeds to the re­spec­tive mag­is­trates’ court with­in the ju­ris­dic­tion where the site is lo­cat­ed, where it is ad­ju­di­cat­ed by the court

• The at­tend­ing mag­is­trate, de­pend­ing on the re­sult of the ev­i­dence pro­vid­ed, is­sues the rel­e­vant fines re­lat­ed to the charge and/or dis­miss­es the case.  
How­ev­er, it should be not­ed that in all the mat­ters be­fore the court, the TCPD is re­quest­ed to me­di­ate with the of­fend­ers in or­der that com­pli­ance with the en­force­ment no­tice may be achieved.

How to make a com­plaint?

Those in­ter­est­ed in re­port­ing il­le­gal de­vel­op­ments and oth­er vi­o­la­tions can send an email to com­plaints@ema.co.tt or call the TCPD re­gion­al of­fice.