Yearwood Responds To Lovell and Stewart

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Hotels

Monday, 20 June 2011 02:30

By Everton Barnes

Antigua St John's - Parliamentary Representative for St Phillip’s North constituency Robin Yearwood has fired back at criticism from both Finance Minister Harold Lovell and hotelier Gordon "Butch" Stewart that he has back-peddled on verbal agreements with the Beaches Hotel project at Long Bay.

Yearwood was responding to statements Lovell made in a television interview last week that stopped just short of calling him a liar, and a full-paged press statement issued by Stewart and carried in two local publications.

In the statement, Stewart said Yearwood had agreed to the expansion of the Pineapple Beach under the Beaches franchise, one of the hotel chains associated with the Sandals brand.

Yearwood confirmed that he did have discussions with Stewart about the expansion of the hotel, and that he gave his blessings to the project, a point he has maintained throughout the controversy over the proposed expansion and its likely effect on public access to Long Bay beach.

Yearwood said he even agreed to talk to the vendors about the expansion, and he did. He said Stewart promised that when the architectural designs were ready, they would talk again, but at no time was he told that the expansion would include areas of Long Bay used by the public daily.

Likewise, Yearwood said that in his discussions with Lovell, he indicated there would be a problem if the expansion included public areas of the beach. He added that he never heard from Lovell until after the minister met with the vendors and informed them that they had to move to make way for the multi-million dollar project.

“I want to make it pellucid that at no time did I agree to give up the public beach at Long Bay to any investors," Yearwood said. "I have been in government when others applied for that land and were turned down. The law says access to beach… that is for hotels that have already been built, some give 3-4 feet access where hotels are located… Long Bay is not an access beach.

There are no hotels, people of Antigua & Barbuda have total use of that beach, and that’s what I am fighting to maintain. We do not need any access, we want to continue present enjoyment of this beach."

The veteran politician also recalled that while he was in government, there was an issue when a hotelier erected a fence at Long Bay, and the opposition and other forces came together to take it down. “When we had problems at Long Bay before, then opposition leader Baldwin Spencer, former UPP chairman Vincent "Tubby" Derrick, and activist Phillip Abbott went there with their supporters and pushed down what fence was there. Mr Abbott planted a national flag on the beach and Mr Spencer said this beach is for the people of Antigua & Barbuda, no one can take it away from them,” Yearwood recalled.


The St Phillip’s North representative is also pointing a finger at the government for its action that led to ongoing protests by the vendors at Long Bay. He also urged the government to meet with the stakeholders likely to be affected by the development.

However, he remained resolute that the expansion can take place without affecting public access to the beach, and threw out a challenge to Lovell to debate the issue publicly.

See related stories:

Long bay beach battle Continues

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