The local newspaper which Barbadians have supported over the years but which has failed the PEOPLE more and more of late is at it again. In today’s version the newspaper was encouraged to print the story that the Holetown Beach is scheduled for a $5.5 million beach upgrade. The reason given for the upgrade by the Coastal Zone Management Unit is to “stabilise the shoreline and improve public access to the beach.” The editor needed to go on, maybe an Editor’s note? We thought we would never say it but with the departure of Harold Hoyte the Fontebelle print has gone to the dogs.
We welcome the remedial work which is to be done. It does not take great effort to understand that beautiful beaches is a major component of our tourism product. Barbados has avoided going the route of establishing casinos, water parks and other ancillary tourist attractions which some say would attract more tourists to our shores. If we allow our beaches to deteriorate it would obviously have a negative affect on our tourism product. Over the years we have never truly diversified our economy to relieve our dependence on the tourist dollar.
The upgrade on the West Coast should interest Barbadians a great deal. The newspaper report suggests that part of the upgrade is to improve public access to the beach. The BU family would know that we have been very critical of the Barbados authorities who have folded to the almighty dollar, the end result is that we have a West Coast concrete jungle which has obliterated most of the windows to the sea.
I took these photo’s by Sandy Lane, the first one is self explanatory, in the second one you can see one of these notices in the left hand side of the image. Does Sandy Lane own the beach here? I don’t think so, so why have they these notices along the stretch of beach outside the hotel.
If I want to go and sit on the sand amongst all these guests will I be asked to leave? Advice please, cause I think myself and my husband fancy a swim on the West Coast this weekend!!
Submitted by BU Commenter Sundowner
Barbados has now lost its island appeal to locals and tourists alike. More significantly the pedestrian trails which provided access to local beaches have been excavated to be replaced by concrete or locked gates. The prophetic words in the song Jack which the Mighty Gabby made famous in 1982 have come to past (please go to the nearest record shop and buy this CD).
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Just who do they (and the Nation) think they are fooling?
This is a monster scam to help the developers of the old Regent Hotel and Holetown Chefette (both soon to be replaced by high-walled condos protected against locals by armed guards and rabid pitbulls) by beautifying the beach to make their sales brochures look wonderful and justify their obscene sales prices.
While removing even more access to the beach making it impossible for locals (and visitors) to get to the beach anywhere between the disgusting Sands monstrosity and the Holetown Post Office.
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Sometime we get the impression that the average Barbadian does not feel passionate enough about these kinds of issues. Its the reason why they have to skulk around the luxury buildings on the West Coast to get a SEA BATH.
A big ultra modern complex is going up at Limegrove, just opposite Holetown Methodist Church. It is good when improvements are happening but why does it have to be done mainly tourist in focus. What will happen is, a little track will be constructed for local; just now we are going to have to pay a toll to get to the beach.
I am a bajan who realises what is going on. I try to make my friends more conscious about what is going on around Barbados. Because when everything is said and done we the people of Barbados have no way to run.
Therefore, lets not say anymore that some of our people are not passionate enough; let us continue to speak out and inform our friends of the injustices being commited to us Barbadians who have built (and continue to build) this country.
I would be very interested to see if there is oing to be a Town Hall Meeting over this issue. The fears expressed above and in the BFP are realistic and cannot be ignored. So, let’s see where we are looking seaward from the road approaching Holetown from the south during the next tourist season. Pass Almond Beach Club and Divi Heritage – then hoarding for the next 3/4 of a km, interrepted only by two walled-in villas. Chefette to be behind hoarding, leaving the new Beach House, and a couple of restaurants, then Villas on the Beach and more hoarding for Cocomos. How welcoming!
If there is a ‘Town Hall’ meeting, GO TO IT. Traditionally we Bajans dont concern ourselfs until we see the walls going up and decide we doan like it. THEN ITS TOO LATE. The process will have been followed by the developer, he will say in the report that there were no substantive objections raised (by the few curious bystanders that ventured in) and then the Town Planning Dept. will approve it. It is the public’s right and frankly their responsibility, to check things like public access, the height and breadth of the structures, whether it’s in keeping with public interest, how it affects environmental isseus like turtle habitat and on & on… We can’t rely on the Planners, the Government, CZMU or anyone else to uphold thes values. IT’S AT US, THE PUBLIC.
If I may offer another slant on this, much of the condo-building activity in Barbados is fuelled by the real-estate boom in London and the major British cities. These condos are SECOND homes, people. What is inevitable is that British real-estate is going to be affected by the sub-prime meltdown in the US. As a matter of fact, they are going to have their own sub-prime meltdown. Does the name Northern Rock mean anything to you? A British mortgage lender that is bankrupt and had to be rescued by the British government.
Many of the condo projects on the West coast are already having trouble selling their units. One building at Payne’s Bay has sold only 2 units. I foresee a day in the not-too-distant future when a flood of unsold condominiums will come on the market. Forget what Altman, Bajan Services and Terra Caribbean are advertising these units at. Offer them 10% of asking price. Banks do not want to carry unsold or defaulted units on their books. They will unload them at a fraction of their so-called value just so they don’t have to carry them as a liability on their balance sheets. This is already happening in Florida.
When all this happens, Bajans will be able to get their own piece of the Rock on the West Coast.
You heard it here first!
The attitude of the locals, can it be blamed on the fact that they have now been displaced on the West Coast and have to serious interest in what is unfolding i.e. concrete jungle and blocking of access to the beaches?
Well said Diaspora-ite! And he (she) wrote this before yesterday’s NYT joyous tidings;
Not only in America. This could be Barbados’ salvation.
How much would you pay for a luxury apartment in an up-and-coming part of Manchester? In May 2005, the buyer of a two-bed, two-bath flat in the city’s Albion Works development paid £190,150. But last week it came up for auction as a repossession. It fetched only £95,000 – a fall of more than 50% in the space of three years.
Albion Works is typical of the developments beloved of property investment clubs before the market stalled. But now the amateur landlords who used cheap finance to build £1m-plus property portfolios are being crunched by rising mortgage rates and falling prices.
Auction houses are reporting a surge in “repos” coming under the hammer. Many are one and two-bed inner-city new-builds once favoured by investors.
The Albion Works flat was one of hundreds sold this week at Allsop (allsop.co.uk), Britain’s biggest residential auction house. Auctioneer Michael Linane says: “We are seeing a lot of the one and two-bed investment-type property, and expect to see a lot more. If you’re a vendor, you’re on the back foot. It’s definitely a buyer’s market.”
What’s striking about Albion Works in Manchester is that it was a development that Instant Access Properties, Britain’s biggest promoters of buy-to-let, once described as a “case study” of successsful investing.
Instant Access originally promoted properties in Albion Works as having a “market price” of £167,500 which, after it negotiated a discount of 15%, could be had for £142,375, creating “instant equity” for buyers. It described how it offered a “fantastic opportunity” for investors. But now that auction prices for the development have dropped below £100,000, many investors could be sitting on capital losses unless they sold out early. Instant Access was not available for comment.
To support the point which some are making about how passive are Barbadians. COW Williams has been moving full steam on the Apes Hill Project. His caterpillars have moved in on the gullies and areas which were wastelands and he has reclaimed such lands to enhance his little project at Apes.
What the Apes Hill project has shown Barbadians that for two steps forward we always seem to witness one step backwards. Residents who live on the border of the Apes Hill project now have to be living in fear of the packs of monkeys which have invaded their gardens and backyards on a daily basis. They have been feasting on the resident’s fruit and other agricultural crops.
Barbadians continue to suffer in silence as the bulldozers and caterpillars continue to work.
but on the other hand the value of their land has increased so that they can too make a killing if they are prepared to sell… just a thought!
Krzysztof S, thanks for that post. But respectfully, Bajans should not be looking at the USA as the engine of the world economy. Frankly I believe that America is finished, done, kaput. Having visited China and India, it is clear to me that once those 2 economies really hit their stride they will eclipse America in the blinking of an eye.
The Americanos will flex their military muscles but ain’t nothing they can do. As soon as China’s internal market is mature enough that they don’t need to export to the USA, they will pull their support of the US$ and when they do that Japan will too. Then you’ll see the US$ worth 50% of what it is today against ALL major world currencies. As we used to say about schoolmates who were suffering from post-lunch flatulence, “Dem dead but ‘fraid to lie down.”
Back to West Coast real-estate. As No More Marinas has pointed out, many real-estate investors in the UK, as well as the USA, particularly Florida [where in Naples, e.g. there are TEN THOUSAND unsold condo units on the market, and nothing’s selling], are now faced with the prospect of having NEGATIVE EQUITY, i.e, their indebtedness exceeds the value of their property. I can see this happening in Barbados as hundreds of Brits, lemming-like, rushed into panic-buying, trying desperately to lock in their place in the Bajan sun.
Instead of focusing on all the construction going on, look forward and realize that when, not IF, the real-estate market tanks, the first thing that will suffer is the second-home market and many Brits will simply toss the keys to their units on the desk of their banker and say, “Go ahead, it’s yours: foreclose.” Then these same bankers who were so desperate to finance second homes will be desperate to unload them to anyone who walks through the door and offers them ten-cents-on-the-dollar.
I don’t always agree with him but in this case I think that Adrian Loveridge is correct. People will always want to come to Barbados for a vacation, but when the condo market tanks, the hotel-room market [for a hassle-free vacation] will improve.
So my Bajan brothers and sisters, safeguard your pennies because soon those same pennies will buy you a west or south coast condo at a fraction of the advertised “value.” Remember the “value” of a piece of real-estate is only what someone will pay for it, not what Paul Altman or Terra Caribbean think it’s worth.
And when jet fuel gets too expensive to fly 767 and Airbusses across the Atlantic, they can get here in their Zepplins.
Oops, they’re gonna have to deal with peak helium ( http://www.groovygreen.com/groove/?p=2107 ) as well as peak oil.
Green Monkey:
We must read different blogs to the readers of BU.
Change is coming with horns and sirens blaring but it ain’t heard here yet.
What year did Hubbert predict peak awareness?
Straight talk, we might still be some ways away from peak awareness, but I figure we might be quite close to peak denial.
According to our West Coast correspondent the surveying work has begun so it looks like this a done deal.
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I note with interest the comment about the wealthy visitor and the corporate domination of the Bajan landscape.
I scrape together 20% of my wages to bring the family to Barbados.The thought that your people could use all the beaches and access all the areas the tourist could access appealed to us as a family.We got on well with the jet boat guys and the entertainers we met.Maybe the fact we are a mixed race family helped us break a lot of barriers on the island. Now i see beaches being dominated by the corporate giants. The attitudes are changing and the special effort we put into financing the holiday just seems to be misplaced. We tried Antigua but found the same problem there. The beach might be public but you cant get to it because of a new holiday complex which was built through the access.
Spain is at least honest in its corporate domination and a lot easier and cheaper to get to.
Pity really.
I long to see the day when locals would start building homes and apartment along the beautiful breaches of the Caribbean regional, where they can enjoy the beautiful scenery that the Caribbean has to offer, but then that is just my imagination going haywire (did i remember to take my medication).
:it was notice that two trucks load of sand and a open bed van with bags of salt was heading to the resident of sweetdarkky….
the rape continue….
While I admire Margaret Knight for her courage and tenacity in her efforts to stop the building of a marina at Six Mens, St.Peter, I must tell her that her efforts may be in vain. In case she don’t know it, the Chief Town Planner is controlled by Bjorn Bjerkham and COW Williams and two of the CTP’s sons work with Bjerkham. The CTP will never go against Bjerkham decision. But I hope Mrs Knight would keep up the action because other Bajans just full of mouth and no action. I am a St.Peter resident and I know for sure that the Six Mens residents do not want a marina.
i dont know why people just cant leave the beautiful places alone wwe are ruining the world
Sundowner, the photos at the beginning of this string are legal. Private property in Barbados begins at the historic high water mark. Anything inside the high-water mark is public and NO ONE can stop you from sitting there or walking there. But outside [on the land side] of the high-water mark is private property, and any property owner is entitled to enclose it. That’s the law. What the GOB has to do is to ensure that there are enough Public Access to the Beach thoroughfares, and if any resort owner tries to block them they should be prosecuted.
Is it the highwater mark or a distance inland from the highwater mark?
ROK, according to the info from TCP, it is the “historic average” high-water mark, unless the conveyance indicates something to the contrary. Since the high-water mark during a hurricane would probably be in the middle of Hwy 1, TCP takes the normal average HWM.
In the case of Port St. Charles, how they were ever allowed to cut a channel through the beach is totally beyond me. But in the case of the Sandy Lane beach, the signs are probably in the correct position, although with a west-coast swell, the waves would probably go past the “private property” sign.
Bottom line is, as Gabby sung, “Dat beach is mine,” at least most of it.
Sounds better. The high water mark would leave you without a beach every 6 hours.
Dissident wrote “Since the high-water mark during a hurricane would probably be in the middle of Hwy 1, TCP takes the normal average HWM.”
Actually at some places along highway 1 the sea crosses over the entire road in heavy weather, and that heavy weather does not even have to be a hurricane. I’ve witnessed this at Mullins. I lived nearby for decades.
J, quite right! That’s why I can’t understand how come TCPO gave permission for that beach bar to be erected at Mullins.
Unbelieveable, Dissident.
Which MP could ever allow such an infringement in his constituency?
The beach bar at Mullins started as a coconut leaf covered shack in the early 1960’s. The menu was hot dogs, coco-cola and beer.
I was away for some years and was surprised on my return to see that it had become a formal structure.
I rather suspect that someone acquired squatters rights, because the whole structure is within the high water mark, since at Mullins the high water mark is on the east (land) side of the road. I’ve seen the sea on the east/land side of that road too many times to count.
But we cannot blame Owen for this one. It became a formal structure long before he was elected to the house for the first time (and I am not a “B”)
I rather suspect that the orginal beach bar was erected without reference toTown and Country planning. Town and Country planning in the 60’s was a small department, with few professionals and in those days most wooden buildings (such as the early beach bar) were likely erected in an ad hoc manner without consulting Town and Country planning. And such uildings have remained. It happened a lot. Still happens, though probably not on the West coast these days.
J
I too know the mullins beach area very well, maybe too well. One on occasion while passing there, the swell had gone so far inland that there was much sand on the road in the corner, this forced me to divert unto Gibbes road to get home. I saw waves breaking through the then Beach Bar during the passage of hurricane Andrew some years ago
Back in the 60’s I’d heard that the original bar/temporary shack was erected by American soldiers from the Naval base in St. Lucy as a hang out, rest and recreation spot. It may not have been intended as a permanent structure.
Yes Scout. My navel string literally buried in that general area, and my mother’s too, and on my father’s side also.
At the beginning of the 20th century my great grandmother owned a bakery on Gibbes beach, when Gibbes Beach was considered useless land, suitable only for poor black women.
However in the latter half of the 20th century my father dissuaded us from buying land in that area. He said that beach land was for rich people who can afford the inevitable damage caused by 50 year or 100 year storm surges.
He was a wise man.
Comment from intl coastal consultant raises concern ovr lack of comprehensive solution 4 #Mullins Bay area – http://bit.ly/VZCZu – #Barbados
Somebody in town planning should lose a job for the mess created on the West Coast. Did politicians overrule the civil servants? The PEOPLE should demand to know.
Take the m out of lime ad you would see them full of lie
Owen Seymour Arthur, who said in the Budget that he has no apologies for his strategy of selling off land any to foreigners, approved all of the physical development in that area. Where is the mixed development he said he encouraged? Is this a retirement village? Where are they growing crops?
The man really thinks we are sleeping!
Mullins Beach Bar was erected by a Mr Michael Hunte way back, I would suggest back in the late 50’s or early 60’s I doubt very much that we suffered TCP permission issues in those times.
Yes, it can happen here and there is good reason why there is conflict between “Team Barbados” and the DLP’s “Fatted Calf Doctrine.”
*******************
“Hold Strain!” That was the plea from Prime Minister David Thompson on August 29, 2008 to the impatient faithful of his then seven-month-old Democratic Labour Party Government.
Eschewing traditional policy pronouncements at party conventions – which he said would come from a more politically neutral setting over the next few weeks and months – Thompson, in his near hour-long presentation, recalled his controversial “fatted calf” comments at the DLP’s 45th conference in 2000.
“The fatted calf under David Thompson’s watch will be slaughtered and shared among those of you who have stood this course,” he had said then.
“The fatted calf will be slaughtered and shared among those of you who have fought the battles and who will have won for us a glorious victory at the polls.”
On the final day of the 53rd annual conference – the first since the DLP’s victory Thompson said both he and they knew what he meant in 2000.
“I meant it then and I mean it today when I say to you, the architects of this victory, fear not!” he told the dems who were by then – trampling each other to get to the trough.
Intelligent Barbadians know that there is conflict between “fatted calf for the dems and team Barbados.
Or, should there be a team Barbados approach so that more would become available for the dems to gouge themselves on?
The DLP can only survive in a country where the people do not think!!! Of fatted calf and Team Barbados.
This is what the Barbados Advocate, Kingdom; David and Adrian Hinds should analyze.
But, as I said, the DLP can only survive in a society where people do not think!.
Been reading your blog for a while now so I thought I would finally drop a comment. Lately I have become addicted to blogs I think. I will start reading a little and before I know it half the day is gone. I enjoy exploring all you have on your site, just amazed how infinite the topics can be out there.
has anyone seen holetown recently????????
the palings close off the beach from beachland right up to the beach house.
sunset crest looks like it run to ruin.
the whole place looks deserted.
who sell out beachland houses?
chefette gone and a madman living in there.
the hotel next to the old chefette is in ruins and crack heads live and lurk about there.
all this right next to the police station.
big million dollar condos built right next to abandoned shacks.
for sale for rent all the way from spring garden to spikestown.
for rent for sale.
and a tourist cant get away fro the beach roamers selling cheep crap jewelery for 20us dollars.
they aint even worth 5 dollars.
wunna like wunna blind in barbados.
i thought this blog was bout holetown??????????
all i see is crap about useless dribble.
@harry
This blog was posted in June 2008. Long before the economic meltdown!
Have you considered adding some differing opinions to the article? I think it might enhance everyones understanding.