CAMPER AND NICHOLSONS SUPPORT CARIBBEAN ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM

Both by lines were referring  to Camper & Nicholsons’  support to  the fourth Caribbean Environmental Forum and Exhibition.  This event, organized by   the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute, a CARICOM institution, was hosted in Grenada by the Ministry of Health and the Environment in late June.

But when I read the story, in particular the following remarks attributed to Mr. Bru Pearce, Chief Executive Officer of C&N, I was rather bemused.  I wondered if he was, too.  Was he confusing Port Louis with another C&N location where government understands its responsibility to the people and to the rule of law?   To a location where due process, procedures and regulations are respected?  To locations where 20 percenters do not rule the roost?  

This can hardly be said of the New National Party administration which entered into dubious arrangements with crooks and conmen, including Viktor Kozeny a.k.a. “The Pirate of Prague’ to whom the NNP government sold our Islander and Lagoon property with a bonus ambassadorial title thrown into  the deal.  The Lagoon and the Ballast Ground area , the people’s property, has since passed from Kozeny to Poole Capital S.A. to Port Louis in very SECRET transactions  and then to Camper and Nicholsons.  We the people are anxiously waiting on the new administration to reveal the DETAILS of these transactions.

But back to Mr. Bru Pearce!  Yes the same Mr. Bru Pearce who, via the Sundays with George Grant programme in early January, adamantly advised we natives that Camper & Nicholsons had the water rights to the Lagoon for 99 years and the right to reclaim land and erect cottages and other infrastructure along the Lagoon Park. The Grenada Advocate quotes Mr. Bru Pearce:

“At Camper & Nicholsons we have a tradition of developing some of the world’s best marinas.  We also have a LONG STANDING COMMITMENT TO PROTECTING AND ENHANCING THE ENVIRONMENT.  

“In Grenada we have been given the opportunity to develop Port Louis and we consider this to be a great responsibility.  We have therefore made the protection of the environment a priority at every stage of our development.”

Mr. Pearce further added that C&N plans to continue its emphasis on ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION and that they will be doing more to raise awareness about the importance of protecting the environment while developing an environmentally harmonious marina.

I wish to suggest the following to Mr. Bru Pearce:

1.    That CHARITY SHOULD BEGIN AT HOME and, therefore, his first order of business should be to DISCOURAGE Peter De Savary from further DESTROYING our land mark Islander headland, one of the twin headlands which guard the entrance to “one of the prettiest natural harbours in the world”.   It was one of the sights that yachts people and persons coming in on the cruise liners never forgot!

2.    Secondly, I would request that Mr. Pearce ask Mr.  Peter De Savary TO MAKE AVAILABLE FOR PUBLIC SCRUTINY the Environmental Impact Assessment on the Port Louis development including the Camper & Nicholson marina, so that we the people may be informed as to how the Environmental Impact Assessment treated  the following:

(i)    the VULNERABILITY of the Carenage commercial area and the port area to flooding from storm surges and other extreme events now that the Ballast Ground area has been reclaimed and built up.  The Ballast ground was an area which played a significant part in dissipating storm waves and mitigating any effect of these waves on flooding in the Carenage area.  What mitigating measures has been taken?

(ii)    What will be the LONG TERM EFFECT OF THE DREDGING AND RECLAMATION ON THE CHANNEL USED BY COMMERCIAL SHIPPING for entry into the Port of St. George’s, i.e. the PEOPLE’S PORT?

(iii)    Has the dredging and reclamation resulted in the destruction of any reefs off the Ballast Ground area?  As an environmentally responsible orgnisation committed to enhancing the environment, I am sure that Mr Pearce is aware that the United Nations declared 2008 to be “Year of the Coral Reef”.   If Camper & Nicholsons is to “put they money where they mouth is”, then they too must  be concerned about the health of any reefs that might be impacted by dredging and reclamation to facilitate berths for MEGA YACHTS.  Indeed, the concept of mega yachts being accommodated in the Lagoon seems very CONTRARY to protecting and enhancing the environment.

(iv)    Are best practices and mitigating measures being employed in the dredging and reclamation taking place in the Port Louis marina?  Are silt traps being employed?  Why is it that we the people can observe silt plumes extending southwards in the direction of the Grand Anse beach?  What is the potential negative impact of this dredging and reclamation on the health of the reefs which protect the Mt. Pandy and Grand Anse beaches?

(v)    Has the construction of the Victory village observed the 50 METRES SET BACK PLANNING REGULATIONS?

(vi)    What arrangements have been made to facilitate SEWAGE DISPOSAL in the Victory village?

(vii)    Isn’t it disrespectful to residents of the Lagoon area and in DISHARMONY WITH THE ENVIRONMENT to have 2 PLASTIC HOLDING TANKS FOR SEWAGE ERECTED NEXT TO SOMEONE’S RESIDENCE?

(viii)    Perhaps we the people could also be enlightened as to what arrangements will be put in place for the fishermen and other boat owners, traditional users of the Lagoon, in the case of extreme weather events?

(ix)    What does the Environmental Impact Assessment have to say about the land reclamation for the erection of cottages and other buildings on the Lagoon Park?  For whom is Camper & Nicholson protecting and enhancing the environment when it deprives we natives of our “public green space” and lagoon view, offering us instead  “windows to the sea”?

The Caribbean Environmental Health Institute would do well to check out the credentials of sponsors to ensure that the image of the institute is not compromised.  But I suppose they left it up to their counterpart in Grenada, the Ministry of Health and the Environment, then under the leadership of Senator Ann Antoine.  

In April 2007, when I wrote to Sen. Antoine asking her to authorize the OECS Economic and Sustainable Development Unit to provide technical advice to civil society in Grenada so that we could properly comment on the Port Louis development, she was of the opinion that the Port Louis project had been properly debated in the Houses of Parliament and there was no need to involve the OECS-ESDU.  So this Port Louis/C&N media moment does not surprise.

And to add injury to insult were the remarks of the former Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Mitchell at the opening of the Forum and exhibition.  According to the Grenada Advocate, Dr Mitchell described Camper & Nicholson as a MODEL for other developers as they (C&N)   made the preservation of the environment one of their top concerns.  

Dr. Mitchell also complimented Camper & Nicholsons and Savvy Grenada for cleaning up the Lagoon.  He ought to be ashamed of himself.  His government spent 13 years in office and did not clean up the Lagoon.  The cleaning up the Lagoon was an issue for the Ministry of Health and Environment.  If this was such an important matter which did not get attended to during his 13 years in office and needed a foreigner to come and attend to it , then clearly his Ministers of Health were skulking on the job.  

I can recall Hon . Modeste Curwen  and Sen. Ann Antoine.   If it was also a matter for tourism , then clearly also his Ministers of Tourism were not minding the people’s business!!   That is glamour girl, Brenda Hood and Hon. Modeste-Curwen. No wonder the people did not consider former Senators Antoine and Hood in the last elections!!  

I notice that Port Louis has been handing out cheques left, right and centre – WONDERFUL PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES.  But tell Peter De Savary and Camper & Nicholsons, “they ent start to pay yet”.  Their sponsorship and donations are a LONG. LONG WAY OFF from the US$6million due in PROPERTY TAX to our empty Treasury on the sale of Port Louis marina to Camper & Nicholson for US$24million.  Not to mention all the duty free concessions on all manner of imports!!

And we have not yet begun to talk about that EC$1.00 which saw the transfer of 3 lots of the people’s property including the Lagoon area to Port Louis.  We the people are anxiously awaiting the review of agreements promised by the members of the new administration.

 We the people also wish to advise the Hon. Attorney-General that he has to be circumspect in all matters pertaining to Port Louis and Camper & Nicholson.  We do not doubt his integrity.  However, he is head of a committee, the Grenada Sailing Festival Committee, which has a “ring on finger” relationship with Port Louis as sponsors of the sailing festival.  Therefore there is a CONFLICT OF INTEREST which will compromise him.  

I do not think that the Attorney-General will wish to be perceived in the same light as the Chairman of the Land Development Control Authority who approved planning applications for Port Louis and also was/is a service provider to Peter DeSavary in the construction of the Victory Bar and Grill.  How ignoble!!

So tell Mr. Bru Pearce to “wheel and come again”.  We natives know the difference between cacapoule and egg white.  Commitment to protecting and enhancing the environment my foot!!

NO DAMN COTTAGES OR ANY BUILDINGS ON THE LAGOON PARK!  WE STANDING UP FOR GRENADA!!