WE WANT THIS GATE MOVED!
This is the cry of some irate residents and water sports operators in Paynes Bay, St James, where a path to the beach, used by tourists and locals for many years, has been blocked off.
A recently erected “guard wall” now has a padlocked gate next to the St James Apartment Hotel. Another path nearby is extremely narrow and people have to squeeze through.
According to beach operator Dwayne Thompson, 43, the blockage would affect his livelihood and that of many others.
“The owners of these condominiums want to stop tourists from coming to the beach so they can control the beach for their guests. It will affect over 500 people directly and indirectly. When the jet skis break down this is the only way to get it back to the road. This is not fair to us. This is the only access to emergency vehicles. We need some hierarchy in this to set it straight once and for all. We want the gate moved.”
Thompson continued: “They put up the gate about Friday (November 26) but it was Sunday when I came I saw this lock on it. You can imagine you have a public beach access and they put a gate there and have a security watching it all day? You can imagine that is what Barbados is coming to?”
He said the beach operators had spoken with Opposition senator Kerrie Symmonds, who gave them his support. He was however, yet to receive a response from the Town & Country Planning department.
Anderson Boyce, an operator on the beach for the past 25 years, said: “Putting up that gate will stop me from paying my bills. We want it move. I want the Minister of Tourism to come down here. I had a letter sent to the Minister of Tourism and I don’t see him come yet. I called the representative for the area (George Hutson) ever since and he never came.”
Robert Hope, 69, who lived in the area all his life, said he was never in favour of the gate. Hope said he refused bribes to build a gate on his property.
“They bring papers and asked me to sign and I said no. They asked me to put a gate to the top and I refused. I am upset about it . . . They even write letters threatening me too,” said Hope.
Taxi operator Ishmael Brereton, on discovering that he could no longer use the path with a group of tourists said: “This will now inconvenience me. Sometimes I come here with up to 40 tourists for the day. I am surprised to come and see a locked gate.”
When contacted, chief planning assistant Chester Howell said he was not aware of the situation as he only went into his current position recently.
Owners of two of the properties who were reported to have orchestrated the building of the gate were said to be overseas. (MM)