Bole is the most unplanned town in Northern Region - Town planning officer

The Town Planning Officer for the Bole District of the Northern Region Mr Lawrence Fynn has revealed that his outfit his frustrated and distressed on how the allocation of land is done in Bole town and its environs.

Even though Bole in the Northern Region is one of the fastest developing towns in the region with some standard buildings, it is the most unplanned with no access roads in most areas due to improper planning.

Mr Fynn expressed disappointment on how traditional leaders have made things difficult for the town and country planning department in Bole to operate, complaining about how layouts are supposed to be done before the allocation of plots but the traditional authorities ignore such layouts and do things their own way. The Bole town planning officer said people do build in areas they are not permitted but when they are asked to stop they refuse with the reason that they acquired such places from the Traditional authorities thereby creating confusion.

During a meeting between the paramount Chief of the Bole Traditional Area, Bolewura Awuladese Pontompron (II); the Land Commission; the District Assemblies of Bole and Sawla- Tuna-Kalba; the Customary Land Secretariat( CLS) and Chiefs from Banda Nkwanta, Sawla and Tuna the assembly official bemoaned the wanton disregard for building regulations.

The traditional authorities agreed that they do not sometimes involve the town planning department in the allocation of lands but said they could not be blamed entirely because the rate at which people demand for land is increasing, but unfortunately the Town Planning department delay in giving the layouts making it difficult for them (chiefs) to wait.

The meeting discussed how to facilitate land documentations and registration process in a shorter time; how the Lands Commission can operate ones a month minimum in the Bole Traditional Area considering the distance of Bole to Tamale and how to get cadastral (comprehensive register of land map and boundaries of land) for applicants who have grants of land from the Traditional Areas and how to translate layout onto the ground for proper spacious development among other issues.

Throwing more light on the issues on Bole-based Nkilgi FM, the Coordinator of the Bole Land Customary Secretariat Mr Seidu Jeremiah called for closer collaboration between the Traditional authorities, the District Assembly and Customary Land Secretariat for proper planning and allocation of plots of land in towns in the Bole District. He said Lands in Bolewura traditional area are for Bolewura but the Country and Planning department and the Assemblies to collaborate to properly demarcated and allocate lands.

He disclosed that applicants for land recognize chiefs in the allocation of land and so the land commission and the District Assemblies should collaborate with the chiefs to have proper allocation of lands to solve the problem of wrong allocation of plots by the chiefs since they are not experts on land allocations.