Blockade

Larry Franklin is highly to be commended.  Yesterday, the island was agog with excitement.  The press were at Blowing Point from early in the morning.  Live broadcasts revealed that the early-morning ferries taking passengers to Marigot had been turned back at the port and refused to land.  No one knew what the cause was, or how long it would last.  Mention was made of Anguilla having arrested a French fisherman for illegal fishing.  Was this an official retaliation by the French authorities?  When would it come to an end?  Was war between Anguilla and French St Martin imminent?  Did we have to wait for Britain to declare it on our behalf, or could we do it for ourselves?  We waited all day for news with baited breaths.

Then, at 10:21 pm the same day, Larry Franklin, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Infrastructure, which has responsibility for the ports, posted a press release on the Anguilla News website.  This revealed that there had been an unofficial blockade arranged by the French fishermen of Marigot.  These had been under the mistaken impression that they were free to fish in Anguilla’s waters without the necessary licence.  One had been arrested and charged, prompting the retaliation.  Anguilla’s government ministers and their staff had immediately ventured to St Martin to meet with their French counterparts.  The misunderstanding had been resolved before midday, and the ports re-opened.  Persons have begun posting copies of the press release on other websites and forums, no doubt to ensure it had the widest possible readership.

What is remarkable, is the prompt, clear, factual, and non-political wording of the press release from Mr Franklin.  It is a model for all civil servants and politicians to follow in the future.  You may read it by clicking on the link above.

Winair

New opportunity for Access Tsarina opens up.  Winair announced yesterday that it is ceasing its daily flights between St Maarten and Anguilla effective 1 December.  December is the peak of the tourism season for Anguilla.  What does this tell us about Winair's views on our tourism prospects?  The industry is very important to us.  Now that marijuana exports are banned, we have very few other crops to reap besides tourists.  

Have you studied the American Eagle recently reorganized service between Puerto Rico and Anguilla?  The flight arrives in Anguilla in the mid-afternoon, meaning that only travelers from the Eastern Seaboard of the United States are able to use it to access Anguilla in one day.  Visitors from Canada, the Mid-west, and the Pacific coast require an overnight stop in Miami or San Juan to be able to get to Anguilla, if they use San Juan.  For those of us in Anguilla who were previously accustomed to make a medical appointment with our doctor in San Juan, go up in the early morning, and then return to Anguilla in the late evening, the present service is a disaster.  We cannot accomplish anything in one day.  We must go to San Juan the day before our appointment, then overnight again to be able to catch the flight the following afternoon.  The service stinks.  The cost for a return ticket on the Eagle to San Juan is over US$300.00, plus at least US$200 for the hotel room, while the return ticket from New York to St Maarten costs less than US$400.00.

Anyone who over the last year has accessed Anguilla via San Juan on American Airlines or via St Maarten on Winair had to have been very badly advised.  I am sure that very little business will be lost to Anguilla if they are both discontinued.  No properly advised international traveler should do otherwise than go directly to St Maarten, then catch either a ferry or one of the small, easily arranged non-scheduled airlines that do the 6 minute flight to Anguilla.

Of the scheduled airlines, only LIAT, God help us, provides a decent air service into or out of Anguilla to anywhere else.  I doubt that many persons will be inconvenienced by the loss of the Winair connection.  What Winair did not mention in its end of service notice was that this flight to St Maarten was probably one of the most expensive flights anywhere in the world, mile for mile. 

Does anybody know how many of our hard-earned dollars went to support the last venture between Puerto Rico and Anguilla?  Will the figures of public funds expended on this project ever come out?  Does the previously announced financial commitment by the government to subsidizing that service continue even now in times of hardship?

Given our government’s penchant for supporting over-the-top, hare-brained enterprises promoted by party supporters and hangers-on, one can only imagine what opportunities our Access Tsarina and her cronies are looking at for the future expenditure of public funds.

Tourism

I get really angry when I read an uninformed tourism promotion article about Anguilla.  If you are a real Anguillian, visit this stupid article.  In the breathless prose we expect from tourism industry advertising hacks, we are invited to “succumb to this island’s charms.”  There follows all the usual rubbish about “crystal clear turquoise waters”. 

Perhaps the most annoying part of the article is the nonsense about The People.  Apparently, our island policies have resulted in a prosperous population in Anguilla with a good education system and a proud heritage.  Yuck! Yuck!  For those of us on the front line, the one thing you notice in our schools is how totally uneducated our school population is.  There is no good education system “with a proud heritage” in Anguilla.  Our graduating children can hardly read or write.  That is a fact.  As for the prosperous population, I have a few unemployed friends I would like to introduce you to.

The author blithely reports that there is only one criminal in Anguilla, and he has been caught.  She writes that the last crime wave in Anguilla involved one young person who was responsible for a few break-ins and minor thefts that were a challenge to the island’s reputation.  His arrest, and the community’s disapproval, served as a lesson to anyone with similar intent.  Please, I want to puke!  Who fed this author on free meals and drinks?

This would be embarrassing if it was written by a blogger. But it was published by Macleans.  This is the Time Magazine of Canada.  It is embarrassing and unprofessional, and the author does not spel so good either!

The only thing that makes sense in the article is the advice that “if you don’t arrive on your own yacht or your own jet, you’ll have to travel via St Maarten”.  I can only conclude that Donna must be doing a great job of promoting our subsidized, very expensive, alternative transportation to Anguilla.

Related Posts:

Access Tsar

Land

The Legal Aid Clinic is celebrating its third birthday this month.  Part of the celebrations is a series of four forums being held in the Valley on problems that commonly arise in the clinic.  Last Tuesday, attorney at law Dame Dr Bernice V Lake QC, and Legal Aid Clinic legal adviser Don Mitchell CBE QC, made presentations on land issues in Anguilla to a small but appreciative audience.

Dame Bernice explained that the principal problems in the registered land system in Anguilla arise when there is a devolution of title.  There are difficulties when assertions are made as to ownership of rights in people’s lands.  These mainly spring from claims to rights of way.  The principles that govern such claims are rooted in the common law, or customary law, and exist outside of the registered land system.  Too many people believe that because they have been permitted to pass over somebody else’s land for a period, that vests in them a right to claim ownership of a right of way. 

She also commented on the practice in the Planning Department of requiring persons who apply for planning permission to subdivide their land to put in a public road to be owned by government as a condition of the subdivision.  They do this without informing the owner what they are doing, and without any offer of compensation.  Planning has a right to insist on access, but a private right of access is not the same thing as a public road.  The problem that has arisen is that when government finds a track over your land, they now claim an established public road that they can expand into a 32 foot highway without payment of compensation.  It took a case brought by Rev John Gumbs that went all the way to the Privy Council to correct that error. 

She also remarked on the mistaken belief held in some quarters that all Anguillians have a right of access over private land to any beach.  She explained that the public has the right to use the public beach, but if there is no registered right of way over private land to get to the beach, then access must be by boat.  The public beach is that strip of sand between the sea bed and the high water mark, it does not extend any further back into private land.  

Airport

Who is going to get blamed over the airport report? The announcement from the Minister of Finance came like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky. He told us on Tuesday that Anguilla’s lone airport had been disqualified “with immediate effect” for use by 80% of the private jets presently using it. Many of our Sillermans and other up-market visitors arrive in their own or hired jets. Some of them have already been diverted to St Maarten, and made to commute to Anguilla like any common man on the street. They must all be very upset with us.

Then, I get an e-mail. It reads [after some minor amendments]:

This runway extension matter is a real crisis. Government knew about it five years ago, told the civil aviation people they'd take care of it, then did nothing. CAA or whatever it's called said OK, we'll waive the requirement for the extra 500 feet for now. (This affects 70% of the private jets that land here.)

Now CAA has come back and said you promised to fix the problem but you've done nothing, so we're enforcing the regulations starting with immediate effect. And GOA have somehow found $12 million to do the job. PWD will coordinate it. God help Anguilla.

So the geniuses at PWD are going to play "Project Engineer." It's a disaster waiting to happen.

So they are out looking for marl, a LOT of it. There is extremely little left at the crown land at Corito so one genius wants to truck it in from West End. The cost, dirt, dust, traffic and noise would be horrendous.

I read the e-mail with alarm. The real story in it is whether it is true that this emergency is not something unexpected, but something we were warned about years ago when the airport was being extended. If so, were we careless about complying with the relevant airport authority regulations? If so, who is to blame?

Another important implication is whether our leaders will now say that it is such an emergency that there is no time to go through the normal tendering process designed to ensure there is no graft. Would they then hand out contracts to friends and supporters, leaving out of the process the likes of Grieg Hughes?

My concern is that procurement remains one of the soft spots in any West Indian government’s vulnerable underbelly of transparency and integrity.

I have checked these questions with the Department of Infrastructure. They assure me that the Department will follow GoA policies and procedures for the procurement of services, labour and material for this project. They promise they will review and approve the procurement methodologies to ensure integrity. They assure me that they take pride in ensuring that the project will be able to stand up to national and international scrutiny from a technical, engineering, financial, and management perspectives.

I hope so. It will be a fresh start. After all, they have not always done it before. There are no accounts and no reports published for the now 4-year old airport extension. No member of the public knows who got the tens of millions spent on that project.

Ask the Hon Edison Baird if you don’t believe me.

What is this about $12 million? I thought we were brokes!

And, do we have any confidence that the up-to-now secret GoA policies and procedures for tendering services, labour and materials have any integrity?

Related Posts:

26 February 2008 - Procurement

LIAT

Do Not Under Any Circumstances Use LIAT. Here I am back in Anguilla. No thanks to LIAT. As we took off at least the stewardess did not try to bullshit us with apologies. She just did her normal thing, looking us straight in the face with no hint of a sarcastic smile. The 10:30 am ‘plane eventually departed for St Maarten at 10:00 pm. Too late to get to Anguilla the same day. I had to overnight in SXM. I arrived in Anguilla more than 24 hours after I set out to travel the 100 miles from SKB to AXA. The Schooner Warspite would have done it in less time 90 years ago. All day long, the ground staff in St Kitts promised us news from hour to hour. Sometimes three hours would pass with no word. One said there were six ‘planes in the hangar under repair. Another lied through his teeth and explained that the problem was there was turbulence in the region. A helpful police officer whispered that some unidentified staff were engaged in a sick out.

Anyway, I arrived home to a message from Spyblog. The unredacted final Report of Sir Robin Auld which names and shames various local Turks and Caicos Islands politicians who were involved in selling off Crown lands to overseas property developers, thereby making a mockery of the concept of ‘belonger status’, and of any effective financial or administrative control of public finances, has been published by http://wikileaks.org/.

It is well worth a visit and a read.

Set aside a couple of hours.

Meanwhile, I have sworn never again to fly LIAT. Not if there is a choice. If I want to get to Antigua from Anguilla I can take Winair from St Maarten. Or, I can take American Eagle to San Juan and then to Antigua. Not one dollar more. Not if I can ever avoid it.

They are absolutely useless.

I hope you follow my example. And, tell all your friends.

Maundays Bay

Maundays Bay Beach suffers by far the most egregious of the encroachments on the ancient public right of access to the West End beaches. According to my information, the land records show three access points for the public to get to Maundays Bay beach. These are at the east, centre, and west of the beach. At various times over the years, every government of Anguilla has addressed the Anguillian public and declared that the owners of Cap Juluca Hotel, or the new owners, understood the importance of maintaining the public rights of way. Chief Ministers have made much publicized tours, and insisted from time to time that the security gate be taken down. One such much publicised tour of the hotel took place as recently as 19 February 2007. In spite of these warnings and demands, the security gate, and the hindrance to the right of way that it constitutes, remains in place. Indeed, it has recently been renovated and enlarged.

The eastern access to Maundays Bay Beach is found by turning left after you pass the security gate and enter the hotel driveway. The car park is marked by a sign, “Public parking”. Pimms Restaurant lies a hundred feet further on, and has a car park that we often used when the public car park was full.

The public car park sign

There used to be a sign indicating “public access to the beach”, where the track now leads from the public car park, past the hotel spa or “wellness centre”, to the beach. It disappeared after the passage of Hurricane Omar in October 2008. In its place is a new sign pointing to the "main house" and the "wellness centre".

The sign to the wellness centre where the public access to the beach sign used to be

After Hurricane Omar, the public beach access sign at the start of the pathway to the spa was removed. Either the hurricane destroyed it or the opportunity was taken to remove it during the renovations. If the hurricane destroyed the sign, it has not been replaced, as it should have been. The hotel has replaced other damaged signs. New signs have gone up. There is now a prominent new sign a few feet before the public car park indicating access from Maundays Bay to Cove Bay.

The new sign to Cove Bay Beach next to the public car park

If you take the paved pathway past the fitness centre, you will see persons who appear to be visitors to the island sitting on their folding chairs with their coolers that they have brought with them.

The public foot path to the beach at the eastern end of the beach, with what appears to be non-residents sitting on their personal folding chairs, and with their coolers of drinks next to them

I no longer see Anguillians taking advantage of this now semi-concealed amenity. Since the sea grape trees have been largely removed, shade is at a premium. Only a few persons at a time can use this spot to enjoy the beach and the sea.

The eastern end of the beach showing the loss of sea grape cover

At this eastern end of Maundays Bay Beach, access to the beach must be achieved by submitting to questioning by security guards at the gate about what your business is at the hotel, and then sneaking down to the beach either via the walkway to the Spa or using the path next to Pimms Restaurant.

The hut in 2007 with the gate post in action

This procedure seem designed to make the prospective visitor to the beach feel like a trespasser. Only a visitor to the island, easily identifiable as the one driving a vehicle with a rental licence plate, is likely to be waved through security without having to submit to such cross-examination.

Government after government has promised us that the hotel has been warned to remove the security gate from where it is. It blocks the public right of way.

The new and improved hut close up

It is an improper erection. After a few years, the likelihood is that the hotel is going to claim that the road is no longer public, and that they have successfully defeated the public right to use it. A public right of way can be lost due to non use. The hotel should be obliged to remove the security hut and barrier to the area of Blue Restaurant. That is where the private villas of the hotel guests properly begin.

The central access to the beach is at the restaurant previously called “Georges” and now called “Blue Restaurant”. I do not remember ever seeing a sign indicating that there was public parking at the restaurant, or that the public had a right to use the beach.

For us locals, access to the centre of the Bay is out of the question. I have on occasion said to the security guard at the hut, “I am going to the beach”, pointing to the restaurant on the right, and been directed to go to the left and to use the public car park at the eastern end. I have got to the central access by saying that I was going to the restaurant. I still do not understand why I have to explain to the staff posted at the gate on the public roadway that I am going either to the beach or to the restaurant. There is no sign of a right of public access to the beach at Blues Restaurant. If there ever was, the recent expansion has obliterated all trace of it.



If any reader of this post has had no problem driving to Blue Restaurant to access the beach, consider whether you might have been driving a rental car or otherwise looked like a tourist rather than a local. That might have made a difference in your treatment by the security staff at the guard hut.

The western access is at the foot of Firefly Lane.

The entrance to Firefly lane

You drive down Firefly Lane towards the sea.

Firefly Lane

To get to the western end of the beach, you drive down to the service gate to the hotel.

The causeway across the pond to the western gate to Cap Juluca

Before the gate, you turn right, following the sandy road until it pierces the dune and gives way to the sea.

Public access to the west of the beach through the dune

I do not recall ever seeing any sign indicating either public parking or public access to the beach at the foot of this access to the western end of the beach. There is nothing blocking your access to the beach on this road. There is a security gate, but it is at the entrance to the hotel proper.

The western security gate to the hotel

One problem with this access is the hotel’s use of it, once you cross the causeway through the pond, to store derelict vehicles and equipment all along the length of the road on both sides of it. This road appears to be used by the hotel as a dump for old and damaged furniture and furnishings.

The western access road to the beach as you drive parallel with the dune

It is the most unsightly public beach access I have encountered anywhere in the West Indies.

Another view of the western access road to the beach

The unsightly dumped equipment also restricts the amount of parking that used to be available to the public.

Some of the derelict equipment alongside the western access road

This access is little used. You seldom see anyone enjoying the beach at this point. You can understand the reason why.

So that, in effect, the only sign at Maundays Bay indicating where the public may park is the public car park sign at the Pimms Restaurant end of the beach. There is no sign at all indicating that the public have the right to use the public beach.

I know the new owners have spent a fortune on renovating and improving the facilities for the enjoyment of their guests, and, hopefully, one day, to make a profit. They deserve all our cooperation and encouragement. But, that does not extend to giving up any one of the three public access to what is arguably one of the best beaches in Anguilla.

I do not blame the hotel for not putting up public access signs. That is the responsibility of the relevant government agency. I do not blame the hotel for not taking down the security hut. It makes their guests feel comfortable. It is entirely for the appropriate government agency to bring a prosecution for the obstruction of the public right. I don’t blame the public service for the lack of action. They await instructions from the political heads of their departments to commence action. I am sure they would be happy to act once directed to do so. But, it seems they are not going to get instructions. It appears that the gift of an ambulance coincided with the loss of will to enforce the Chief Minister’s demands that the public access to the beach be unimpeded. Was that all it took to persuade our leaders to look the other way as the public access roads to this beach have been silently and slowly eroded? Negligence, self-interest and compromise of the public interest are but some of the characteristics of an unprincipled government.

I feel sorry for the children. In a few years time they will not even know the rights their parents used to enjoy.

Meads Bay

Meads Bay is a public beach that the public previously accessed in several spots. It has only one public access now.

That is the road through the Malliouhana Hotel property, by the tamarind tree at the east end of the beach. If it is filled with cars, you could try parking on the narrow main road and walking through it to the beach. In effect, the entire western end of the beach is now inaccessible to the public.

There used to be another access road for the public. It will be familiar to all who know the old Coccolloba Hotel as the road to the dolphin prison. It ran over what is now the Viceroy project, to the east of the main entrance. It used to give public access to the beach at Meads Bay until a couple of weeks ago.

You can drive down it now part of the way. It ends now at a villa being built across what used to be the beach access.

A security guard in a little hut blocked my way to the villa under construction. “What happened to the road that led to the beach?” I asked her. “It private now”, she replied.

Whatever happened to the promise made in the MOU that they would provide public access to both Meads Bay and to Barns Bay? Is there no authority in Anguilla watching out to protect public rights of way and public access to the beaches of the western half of Anguilla?

All the other accesses to the beach have been blocked off to the public.

I suppose we can always try parking in one of the hotel or restaurant car parks and pushing our way through to the beach. Is that what the right of public enjoyment of the beaches of Anguilla has come to?

I feel sorry for the children. They will never enjoy the rights we once did.

Shoal Bay West

Shoal Bay West is one of the easiest beaches in Anguilla to access. But, you have to know how to. There appear to be only two remaining ways for the public to get on to the beach. One of them is labeled and the other is not. Shoal Bay West is also most beautiful of the West End beaches in Anguilla. It is the location of Cove Castles Hotel, Blue Waters Hotel, and Altamer Hotel.

Squeezed between the house previously owned by Dianne Norris and Cove Castles Hotel is the one access that is labeled. Someone has filled in a corner of the West End Pond to make a comfortable area for public parking.

Shoal Bay West car park opposite the public access to the beach

The public access from the car park to the beach is narrow and partially concealed.

Public access to the beach

But, the notice, damaged though it was by Hurricane Omar, shows the way clearly enough.

Walking up the access to the beach

A recent visit to the beach showed that the car park and the access were in use.

Visitors with their cooler enjoying the beach

There were cars in the car park and visitors, carrying their picnic lunch and drinks with them, relaxing on the beach.

It is time, I would have thought, that whoever is responsible replaced or repaired the sign.

Altamer Hotel has recently, since the passage of the Hurricane in October of last year, provided a scraped access to the beach. It is not one of the most beautiful, manicured, or smooth of roads.

Public access to the beach adjacent to the restaurant building at Altamer

But, at least they have scraped away the boulders, trees and bushes that previously blocked this access. Did they do it voluntarily, or under pressure, one wonders.

The way to the beach alongside Altamer's restaurant building

If you are prepared to step gingerly and carefully over the stones and pot holes, you can get to the beach, where you will find yourself looking westwards along the entire stretch of the beach to Cove Castles in the distance.

Shoal Bay West beach looking west from the Altamer Restaurant building

Cove Castles Hotel and Blue Waters Hotel appear not to permit members of the public onto or across their properties to access the beach.

I have no idea how the fishermen, who used to keep their boats drawn up at the western end of this beach, are able now to access it. Perhaps, like some rare and sensitive Amazon frog, they have become extinct due to the human invasion of their native habitat.

If the relevant authorities do not step up to the plate without delay and ensure that there are properly marked accesses to all of these beaches, we might as well consider public access to them going in the same direction as that frog.

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