Long Bay

Long Bay is beckoning us to come and have a swim. Long Bay is another access problem waiting to explode. One public access to the beach used to be the road that now leads to Oliver’s Restaurant.

I remember 35 years ago we used to drive down it to the beach next to Howard Clark’s house. That road was given away by Hubert years ago to Oliver. The road has been diverted from where it once ran and now ends in Oliver's car park. With his permission, you may be able to staircase to get onto the beach.

All the other roads off this road appear to be private roads.

Another traditional public access to the beach lay further to the west. It has been effectively closed off by Geoff Fieger. It used to run directly to the beach from just east of Lucy’s restaurant. It seems that Mr Fieger wanted this road to come to his house directly. No doubt with the permission of the Planning Department, he built his house directly in the path of the road. In exchange, he gave the public an alternative access to the west of his property.

However, he has fenced in the last 50 feet of it before the beach. The result is that anyone driving up will think they are trespassing on private property, and will not use it to access the beach. To help you to make up your mind, there is a sign on a column. It proclaims the gravel path “Fieger Villa beach access”.

Additionally, the access is now squeezed between concrete monuments, both lying down and standing. Some helpful person has even left a pile of sand and stones lying in the way. It appears that the idea of this further obstruction is to suggest very strongly that the use of the path is limited to the guests of the Fieger Villa.

There used to be a third road that led to Long Bay beach. A little further to the east of Howard Clark’s road was the access that ran down to the beach to the west of Long Bay Pond.

The Planning Department permitted Robert FX Sillerman to enclose the end of it where it approached the beach. He has included it in his high wall.

Mr Sillerman’s wall reaches upto the pond, so that it is now impossible to get from the road to the beach without wading through the pond.

God alone knows who permitted this abortion. Ministers have apologised to the people of West End and have promised to rebuild this public access to the beach. That was three years ago, and nothing up to this time has happened. In any event, that would involve filling in part of the pond, an important wetland habitat with nesting birds. Another abortion of a solution.

There is no public right of way to drive your car up to Long Bay beach. This is not the fault of any of the persons mentioned in this post. They have no responsibility to protect public access to the beach. That is the duty and responsibility of our Planning Department and our Surveys Department. They are expected to ensure there are signs at every public access saying “Beach access”. We expect them to be alert to notice when there is any infringement of a public right of way. Individual members of the public have no legal right to enforce a public right of way. That is what the Attorney-General’s Chambers are there for.

The Surveys Department know from their records where the public accesses in Anguilla are. These public rights of way are not noted on the Land Registers, due to a defect in the relevant law. Public rights of way will not be apparent to someone who searches the public Registers. The government records kept in the Survey Department are not part of the Land Registry records. Even if the persons mentioned above had searched the public Land Registers for a record of public rights over their lands, they would not have found them mentioned.

The Anguillian public expects public rights of way to appear on the publicly available Land Registers. It is pure negligence and cowardice why they do not. We now have no way of knowing how many of the three roads described above were public rights of way. If they ever were, they are now inaccessible to the public.

If you want to swim at Long Bay beach now, better hire a boat. There is public access by sea from Road Bay.

I feel bad for the children. They will never be able to enjoy what we once had.