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The Cotton Tree Village Council is taking the Barrow Administration to court; they say that Government failed to consult – as they were required to do – when they distributed 240 lots in their village. Â But, government’s defense is that the state acquired private property to share up amongst eight Belize City constituencies. Â The man who initiated it all was Wilfred Elrington. He persuaded one of his former clients, Ramon Tseng to sell some of the vast tracts of land he owns on the Western Highway. Â Elrington said it was imperative and overdue that he get some land for his PICKSTOCK constituents:…

Hon. Wilfred "Sedi" Elrington -  Pickstock Area Representative
"We have just delivered some forty-nine lots to people in the Pickstock area from the Cotton Tree neighbourhood. And let me explain to you how that came about. I have been an area representative in Pickstock for the past six years. I have always complained bitterly to the Cabinet that the residents of Pickstock don’t get lots. I need lots for the residents of Pickstock. That complaint largely fell on deaf ears. So I had a friend - a very dear friend of mine, a Taiwanese client whom I have known for twenty-five, thirty years who owned in excess of two hundred acres of land right across the highway from the village of Cotton Tree. It had nothing to do with Cotton Tree. It was private property, belonging to Ramon Tseng, whom I got the Government to purchase, so that the people in Pickstock could get lots.

Daniel Ortiz
"Sir, the suggestion that is out there from persons from the Cotton Tree Village is that this lot distribution thing was some sort of reward for UDP supporters. So, can we get a reassurance from you that the persons in your division were duly deserving Belizeans who needed lots?"

Hon. Wilfred Elrington
"I don't think you find poorer people than the people in the Pickstock Division. I told you that I've been in the office for 6 years as an elected representative. They elected me twice, and it took me 6 years to get 60 lots. Can you imagine that? I have over 3,000 voters there; only 60 lots for 60 persons, after 6 years of reprepresentation. Am I proud of that? I am not. I am very disappointed. I would want them to get more because they're entitled to it."

Elrington has been earmarked 60 of the 240 lots, 49 of which he has already allotted.

Ramon Tseng is a huge landowner – and also owns Ramon’s Plaza at the airport junction.