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For the past 8 days, Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley has been under pressure from his opposition, PUP Mayoral Candidate Yolanda Schakron. He's been accused of deflecting attempts to call him to task for his promises of transparency and accountability.

And since it's the election season, it was the perfect time for the press to find out that City Hall intends to give away land to its staff. So, before his opponent thinks to use it for political football the mayor discussed it with us today.

So, how will this program work? Well, Central Government has given the City Council 50 acres of land at Mile 14 on the George Price Highway. A plot will be given each staff member who has worked for the council for 2 years.

It's a social program to reward the staff members, in a similar manner as the increment system which the staff got at the end of each year to for a salary increase. Bradley told us today, that neither he nor any of the councilors who are elected to office will be getting any:

Mayor Darrell Bradley - Belize City Mayor

"The idea is we would want to give people who have been working for the city council for at least a minimum of 2 years, so it's a reward for their years of service. There are some practical difficulties we were encountering, which is why it is kind of taking us so long. We're working with civil surveyors in terms of surveying the lands and then the land is off the road quite considerably. Because it was a piece of property that was gifted to the city. We have actually spent no city council resources in acquiring the property, so we have to deal with certain issues and challenges that presents itself in terms of how we will get electricity in the area and other things like that to benefit our staff. But the committee is working on all those attending issues, we were going to do the distribution by way of a lottery - so that no staff member can complain that anyone was favoured in relation to the selection of the parcels. And this would be for staff, who have worked with the council for over 2 years. This is strictly staff. Staff is defined as somebody who is employed with the city council and they would have received a letter of appointment. So it doesn't include any person who is elected. And we were actually considering not including senior management. It's primarily meant to benefit people who don't have a property. If you are somebody who is a senior manager, your salary is much higher than the regular staff, you can perhaps buy property from the private market. But we left that decision up to the committee and the committee included every person who is staff."

Before the BML workers were welcomed as staff members in January, the program would have provide land to 180 of the 230 employees at the time. The land is only leased from the Government of Belize so each staff member who is awarded a plot must work toward getting their title for it.