Housing and Lands Minister, Denis Kellman planting a tree to mark the 30th anniversary of the Land Registry at the Warrens Office Complex on Friday. Looking on are (l-r) Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Housing, Lands and Rural Development, Alies Jordan; Machine Operator, Land Registry Department, Lisa Scott; Registrar of Tiles, Winston Coppin; and former Registrar of Titles, Michael Alleyne. (C.Pitt/BGIS)
The Land Registry Department has been firmly planted in Barbadian society.
This was underscored recently by Minister of Housing, Lands and Rural Development, Denis Kellman, as he addressed a tree planting ceremony to commemorate 30 years of its operations on the island.
Following the planting of a tree at the Warren’s Office Complex, where the department is located, Mr. Kellman said: “It is significant that we are planting fruit trees as part of the celebrations. As we know, the planting of a tree is only the beginning of the fruit-bearing cycle.
After a tree has been planted, watering, sunshine and fertilising are required to make that tree a strong, deep-rooted, fruit-bearing organism.”
Likening the Land Registry’s existence to this, the Minister said it was “planted” some 30 years ago at Marine House [Hastings, Christ Church] by the hands of successive Registrars and a professional and focused staff. As a result, he said, it was now “a strong deep-rooted organisation”.
Acknowledging that the several praises lauded on the Registry’s staff by the public was indicative of the good fruit it has borne, he noted that his Ministry was striving “to make the Barbados Land Registry a world class Registry”. He urged the public and those in the legal profession to continue partaking of the services, efficiency and professionalism of the staff to ensure its longevity.
Speaking on the department’s progress and expectations for the future, Mr. Kellman stressed: “The Land Registry endeavours to reflect the times. In the time of computerisation, the Registry upgraded its way of doing business, thereby improving efficiency by providing the facility to conduct searches from an online database as opposed to dredging through decades of archival documents. Currently, the Registry is in discussions on e-conveyancing. This is a milestone we hope to accomplish in the near future.”
He also thanked management and staff there, as well as in his Ministry, for doing good business and treating their customers with respect, while working assiduously to ensure that revenue was collected on behalf of the people of Barbados.