By Cayman News

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(CNS): Finance Minister Rolston Anglin (WBN) has defended the acquisition of land in West Bay, which was bought from the Hydes family and will be used to house the district police station. He has also revealed that, despite the forecasted operational deficit his ministry is now fighting to avoid, the Cayman Islands Government has money in the bank to use to acquire strategic land when it becomes available. ,

Anglin has said there were reasons why more purchases were important for conservation, including in the Central Mangrove Wetlands and Barkers.

“We have a massive job in front of us when it comes to additional strategic land acquisitions… We still have a lot of land in the Central Mangrove Wetlands that we want to protect,” the minister said Friday during an appearance on Radio Cayman’s For the Record.

“We have to come up with a plan as to how we are going to strategically continue to acquire lands. I don’t think I need to say publicly why that is so important, given the other entities that operate in Cayman and the number of lands and thousands of acres that they have acquired,” Anglin added.

He also said the CIG was keen to buy more land in Barkers and eventually create a legally protected national park at that location, where the Crown has a significant amount of land.

However, Anglin made no mention of the Memorandum of Understanding that the previous government announced last December that it had signed with Dart, the other major landowner in Barkers, who wants to build an exclusive resort there.

The NCFC government has faced criticisms over the two pieces of land that it has bought since coming to office. However, both were relatively inexpensive and appear to be sensible acquisitions for practical and popular reasons. The investment in 125 acres of land on Cayman Brac’s Bluff near Lighthouse Park for around $5.5 million was very popular with Brackers and conservationists across all three islands.

The purchase of the highest point in West Bay, also home to a district lighthouse, for just $2.3 million, which will in time become the home of the new RCIPS station and a new district clinic has been questioned. But Anglin justified the purchase, noting that successive governments had talked about buying this land. A petition had also been submitted by a group of West Bayers asking the CIG to buy it.

Anglin said these two acres of land in Boatswain Bay were both good value and strategic. But he said he had been asked by several people how the government had the money to buy any land at the moment, given concerns over the potential deficit, which he said was a logical question.

The minister said he had also faced false allegations that he had benefited in some way from the sale of it by the Hydes family. He said the land was part of Renald Hydes’ estate, which has nothing to do with his own family, and he noted that the acquisition was made through the official channels.

Anglin explained that the CIG had the cash to acquire these recent purchases. The land was placed on the market just before the election, and the new government took a position that they could not pass on the opportunity to purchase it.

He said he a “couple of million dollars” in the capital budget for the education ministry which was not going to be spent this year. Given the elevation of that piece of land, it is likely it would have been snapped up by a developer, so when the coalition took office, they moved quickly to buy it, Anglin explained.

The current police station in the district has been condemned, but the property previously earmarked for a new station was swamp land, and many people in the district had been opposed to that plan because of the expenditure needed to fill it.

Buying the highest point in West Bay instead was a strategic acquisition because it will facilitate an emergency services centre on high and dry ground at the heart of the district. “Acquiring it does not impact the surplus or deficit because it’s a capital equity acquisition. We are acquiring an asset… We had the funds available to do it,” he said.

The minister said that while the government was not going to go on a splurge of capital expenditure, it would be looking carefully at capital projects that it would need funds for, but new revenue may have to be raised to finance important infrastructure projects.

He said the government was going to be fiscally prudent, “running as tight a ship as we can”, but it still had to deliver critical services and infrastructure for the country. “We have to build roads; we have to provide good, safe spaces for teaching and learning, and we have to provide a police station in the district of West Bay,” he said.

Anglin said he believes the public wants the CIG to secure certain land, which included these recent purchases, as he confirmed plans for more acquisitions.

Watch Anglin on For the Record below