The Tribune

SAVE The Bays, the environmental advocacy group, said yesterday that it would consider dropping all court actions involving Nygard Cay provided controversial fashion designer Peter Nygard agrees to obey the law and reverse the substantial environmental damage caused by decades of unauthorised development at his Clifton Bay property.

Mr Nygard called this week for an end to litigation arising from the seafloor dredging around his property and the reclamation of Crown land without authorisation, urging the parties involved to work together to address the social and environmental issues facing The Bahamas. But, according to the environmental group, the two matters are unconnected.

“The attempt by Mr Nygard to link his own illegal development activities at Nygard Cay (and the litigation that has arisen as a result of it) with entirely unrelated pressing environmental issues and poverty in The Bahamas is disingenuous and disappointing,” the group said in a statement in a response sent to the fashion designer’s lawyers yesterday. “Mr Nygard is proposing that he can make this public interest litigation go away by making financial contributions to other worthy causes whilst he retains illegally reclaimed Crown land that rightfully belongs to the Bahamian people.”

Save The Bays pointed out that as a registered charity, it already makes contributions in the areas Mr Nygard had mentioned, adding that if he genuinely cared about poverty and environmental degradation, he would both make the appropriate contributions and reverse his illegal activities at the same time.

Mr Nygard issued an open letter on Monday to his Lyford Cay neighbour, Louis Bacon, with whom he has been embroiled in bitter legal battles for over a decade and who is suing the billionaire Canadian for defamation in the United States, calling for an end of the “bickering, fighting and suing”. He proposed negotiating a “global resolution” to outstanding litigation and environmental issues related to his property and instead financially helping the Bahamas’ less fortunate citizens. “I am personally committed to immersing myself in the settlement process,” Mr Nygard wrote. Mr Bacon is a backer of Save the Bays.

In his letter, Mr Nygard warned the various legal actions “could last for years to come because - if we are all being honest with ourselves - in addition to the legal issues that we all feel strong about, this is at least partially fuelled by pride and a clash of egos”.

While Mr Nygard also referred in his letter to the oil pollution at Clifton Pier that has “continued unchecked”, Save The Bays announced in its response that it has filed a judicial review application against the Bahamas Electricity Company (BEC) and the Minister for the Environment, Deputy Prime Minister and others in relation to the ongoing pollution and invited Mr Nygard to donate to the group if he wishes to support the action being taken to protect the Clifton area.

The group said it also objected to the assumption underlying Mr Nygard’s letter that the Save The Bays litigation is aimed at him personally. “In fact, the litigation is between an environmental group and the government, the subject matter of which is Mr Nygard’s activities at Simms Point. The legal proceedings Save the Bays has brought are brought in the public interest and against government agencies not against Mr Nygard,” the statement said.

“They are brought to address a wrong, namely, government failure to enforce against Mr Nygard the legislation and regulations in place in The Bahamas to protect the environment and regulate development.”

Save The Bays, along with other environmental groups and concerned citizens, claim that since its purchase by Mr Nygard more than 30 years ago, the Simms Point/Nygard Cay property has more than doubled in size as a result of illegal construction and dredging activities that have caused severe damage to the sensitive ecology of the surrounding Clifton Bay. The growth of Nygard Cay happened without proper authorisation under law and at the expense of Crown land, which is the property of the Bahamian people.

Save The Bays said it would welcome a settlement proposal from Mr Nygard contingent on three commitments: to give up his claim to the Crown land that he has illegally reclaimed from the sea by his unauthorised activities; to cease and desist from further illegal dredging and land reclamation activities; and to return Nygard Cay to the condition it was in before he carried out his illegal development activities.

By contrast, the group said, Mr Nygard seems to want a settlement that brushes these wrongs under the carpet, allowing the government to go on neglecting its duties while its “funders and friends” continue to flaunt the law. “If Mr Nygard wishes to make a serious proposal with regard to how he can rectify and mitigate the substantial environmental damage caused by his illegal activities, Save The Bays will give such a proposal all proper consideration,” the group added.