The Tribune

• ‘No difficulty’ with Cabbage Beach rerun

• Unions to meet over beach access row

• Question over permits for $250m project

By NEIL HARTNELL

and YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporters

A trade union leader yesterday said there was “a very, very strong possibility” that there will be a repeat of the 2016 protest walk over Paradise Island Bridge unless access to Cabbage Beach is resolved.

Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, issued the warning while telling Tribune Business he planned to “very shortly” meet with the Cabbage Beach Vendors Association’s president to discuss how the umbrella union body could assist it and its members in preserving the easement adjacent to the RIU Paradise Island resort.

“I was a part of that demonstration back in 2016. I was one of the key architects. I have no difficulty repeating that. My leg is a little weaker than it was then but I’ll be there,” Mr Ferguson said, arguing that the livelihoods of the Association’s vendor members were at stake.

“That’s very, very, very, very possible. That’s a very strong possibility,” he added of a repeat of the 2016 protests. “We walked over the bridge. I was there when we told the fella we were coming in. When you have easement rights there are ways to deal with those types of things. You cannot arbitrarily do things to people accustomed to doing things in a certain way over a certain period of time. There are ways to go about doing things.”

The Cabbage Beach Vendors Association is a TUC affiliate, and Mr Ferguson said the trade union movement will stand together as one given its “obligation to look after their interests” if it is shown that vendors are being treated unfairly over use of the easement to access the beach location where they provide services to tourists.

Irate vendors on Tuesday broke through the fence erected by Access Industries, the Ocean Club’s owner, which said it had blocked the easement in an effort to address “safety concerns” stemming from its contractors’ use of heavy machinery to clear the site in preparation for what it described as a $250m condominium hotel project.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, said he had been “blindsided” by Access Industries’ move and urged them to change course. He added that the Government will seek to maintain the easement as a public access point to Cabbage Beach, and said he had told the developers to come up with a plan that accommodates both the vendors and the public.

The minister’s reaction immediately raises questions as to whether the Ocean Club owner has all the necessary permits and approvals to begin the development. There were strong indications that it does not, especially since no public consultations appear to have been held either by the Town Planning Committee or the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP).

Adrian White, the Town Planning Committee’s chairman, who is also the FNM’s St Ann’s candidate in the upcoming general election, referred Tribune Business to Mandie Maynard, the committee’s secretary and a Department of Physical Planning employee, when asked whether Access Industries had applied for the necessary permits and if a public consultation had been held or scheduled.

Neither Ms Maynard or Charles Zonicle, acting director of physical planning, could be contacted or returned messages seeking comment. Rochelle Newbold, director of the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection, also could not be reached for comment before press time. However, Mr White’s reaction strongly suggests no approvals have been granted, or public consultations held, by Town Planning.

Access Industries, in a statement last night, said it had merely been doing site clearing so it could better assess the property’s development possibilities. “The owner of the private land is doing comprehensive and permissible site work, including the clearing, so it can assess the property for the development of the hotel, condominium and retail project,” it added.

“Because of the use of heavy machinery, the site was closed because of safety concerns, and signs were posted to this effect, as well as to direct traffic to other access points to the beach.” Mr Ferguson yesterday said the issue of whether Access Industries had the necessary approvals was “a very major concern”.

“Sometimes these things happen with a limited number of people knowing what’s going on,” he said. “No Bahamian thinking properly could support what is going on at Cabbage Beach. That’s not being Bahamian. Bahamians don’t function like that. 

“These are [vendors’] businesses and livelihoods. That’s where they eat from, feed their families from. What do you expect them to do? One hundred dollars a week will not do much. These government agencies have the responsibility to ensure the playing field is equal. It’s not equal.”

However, numerous Supreme Court rulings have confirmed that this particular route/easement used to access Cabbage Beach lies on land owned by Access Industries. Justice Gregory Hilton, in an April 30, 2019, ruling found it was “a private access way” over which the owner can set the terms and conditions of its use.

This effectively means the Ocean Club owner can act as it sees fit. Ownership of the Cabbage Beach property was transferred from Atlantis – owned by Brookfield Asset Management – to a subsidiary of Access Industries in 2014 as part of the Ocean Club’s sale to the latter.

Prior to the sale, Atlantis had allowed access to the beach via the easement through the private property. However, the company had petitioned the Government on several occasions to address the vendor operation at the beach, due to concerns that standards were not consistent with the high-end tourism product the mega resort was offering.

In December 2015, the Cabbage Beach Vendors Association filed an injunction in the Supreme Court to prevent Access Industries from restricting access by way of the path. A 30-day injunction was put in place, but further applications to have that extended were denied.

The vendors, from that point, still had just over 50 days to access the beach via that easement, based on an agreement between the then-Christie administration and Access Industries that was not made public.

These events allowed Access Industries the leeway to erect a fence to restrict access to the beach, leading to the 2016 dispute and protest that eventually resulted in it being taken down.

Despite what happened five years, the Ocean Club owner appears to have given no advance warning or notice of the new fence that was erected on Wednesday, even though the 2016 protest should have alerted it to just how sensitive and emotive an issue Bahamian access to land - and especially beaches - is.

Its initial release, saying Bahamians “still can readily access the beach at Beach Club Drive, off Paradise Island Drive, or consider Junkanoo Beach or Montagu Beach in Nassau”, is also unlikely to have gone down well with many.

Meanwhile, Maria Daxon, attorney for the Cabbage Beach Business Owners Association (CBBOA), yesterday said she was is seeking an “urgent meeting” with the Government to resolve the matter.

She added that she was writing to the Prime Minister, Mr D’Aguilar and Shanendon Cartwright, chairman of The Bahamas Public Parks and Beaches Authority, adding: “They need to tell us about this property that they allowed to be sold to these people, and they need to tell us why, how and when was it sold. 

“When did Desmond Bannister [deputy prime minister and minister for works] allow this property to get approved when vendors need access to that beach? How could they build a condominium when the Ministry of Tourism is supposed to be building a cultural centre? When did they change?  They were fully aware that people were using that access, and they knew that when they gave them permission to build.”

Ms Daxon said the Association was also due to meet with Wayne Munroe QC yesterday evening to determine what “their next steps are going to be”. Mr Munroe is a candidate for the opposition Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) in the upcoming general election.