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A Morvant-based construction company has issued a pre-action protocol letter to Commissioner of State Lands Paula Drakes, challenging the government’s claim of ownership over lands in Couva now occupied by the Brechin Castle solar farm.
The letter, dated October 3, was submitted through attorney Peter Taylor on behalf of Morvant Building and Construction Co Ltd (MBCCL).
This follows similar letters previously sent to the Brechin Castle Solar Farm Ltd, the National Gas Company, BP Alternative Energy T&T Ltd and Shell TT.
In his letter to Drakes, the company questions the State’s legal right to lease two parcels of land to the National Gas Company (NGC), which later subleased the property to Brechin Castle Solar Ltd for Trinidad and Tobago’s largest renewable energy project, a 92-megawatt solar farm led by Shell, bp, and NGC.
The letter asserts legal and equitable entitlement to the “consolidated lands” identified in historical deeds dating back to 1956. The company argued that Deed No. 4205 of 1956, executed between Wilhelmina Placide and Dominion Oil Ltd, established private ownership over 37 acres in Couva and an adjoining 640 acres described as “consolidated lands,” both treated as one leasehold estate.
The company maintains that no document in the 69-year chain of title indicates state ownership. In the letter, Taylor contends that the lands were never sugarcane estates, contrary to public statements describing the project site as “former sugar plantation lands owned by the State.”
Michael Williams, the company’s principal director, said the company’s late founder, Thomas Simon, had long treated the lands as MBCCL property, backed by multiple deeds, survey plans, and a 2012 High Court consent order recognising its ownership of the 37-acre parcel.
The letter calls on the commissioner to produce, within 14 days, documentary evidence proving the state’s claim to the leased parcels and adjoining lands.
Failure to do so, Taylor warned, will lead to MBCCL filing legal proceedings for an injunction to restrain Brechin Castle Solar Ltd. and related parties from entering or developing the property.
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