THE Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrived in Belize yesterday after protests forced them to cancel a trip to a local village where the royal couple planned to kick off their Caribbean tour.

They were set to visit the Akte’il Ha cacao farm in Indian Creek, but the trip was scrapped amid complaints that locals had not been consulted.

Chair of the village Sebastian Shol said residents were not asked permission for the royals’ helicopter to land on a local football pitch, leading to angry demonstrations.

“We don’t want them to land on our land, that’s the message that we want to send.

“They could land anywhere, but not on our land,” he said.

The royals were accused of failing to understand the issues pertaining to the “meaning of consent in the context of communal land rights, rights to lands that were expunged in the colonial period by the British.”

Their tour of the region is seen by many as an attempt to prevent more countries following Barbados, which earlier this year removed Queen Elizabeth as head of state, becoming a republic.

British troops still use one sixth of the Central American country’s territory for military exercises, for which Belize receives no payment.