An open letter to Members of Cabinet
Ms Carvel Lett
Cabinet Secretary (ag.)
Cabinet Office
Office of the Prime Minister Ministerial Complex,
Sir Eric M. Gairy Botanical Gardens Tanteen,
St. George
December 5 2024
Dear Hon Members of Cabinet,
Joined up government?
An open letter to Members of Cabinet
We are making all the right noises about sustainable development. But we are not putting it into practice! Talking the talk but not walking the walk.
The Prime Minister is travelling the world with the sustainability message. Making the argument for financial assistance to help small island states to protect against climate change effects and to protect the environment. So far so good. But what are we actually doing here at home to protect our natural environment from over development and inappropriate development?
Where is our quantified tourism strategy that defines our target markets to limit damage to our natural assets? Nowhere. Any tourists will do and the more the better it seems.
Where is our land use plan defining what types of development will be allowed where and what types won’t? Nowhere. As far as the Planning and Development Authority is concerned, anything will do anywhere. The faster we can cover our natural assets with concrete the better it seems.
A current example is the plan to build an industrial boatyard in Mt Hartman Bay destroying mangroves and dry forest, dredging and piling the sea bed, contaminating our marine species and infecting the food chain with poison paints and chemicals. Why was it given planning consent? Moreover, it will blight any future environmentally responsible development at Mt Hartman. An eco-friendly hotel or educational development will be deterred by a noisy, ugly, contaminating boatyard.
But it gets worse. The land is owned by government! Why was it leased to a developer to build a contaminating boatyard in that important location? It gets worse yet: the lease is exclusively to develop a marina not an industrial boatyard! Yet this was ignored by the Planning and Development Authority in granting planning consent. The left hand of government not knowing what the right hand is doing? Well now it does. Will it act? The lease states that it can be terminated without compensation if the developer builds anything other than a marina.
The developer appears to have knowingly deceived government. He applied for planning consent for a boatyard in January 2022 then, in December 2022, signed a lease with government exclusively for a boatyard. And this is a local developer. We can’t blame the Chinese for everything!
Cabinet, please terminate this lease now and show that you are something resembling a ‘joined up’ government! The lease is clear that this is what should be done. And this will put an end to the Supreme Court judicial review claim we have commenced.
And please replace the Members of this incompetent Planning and Development Authority all of whom have finance or construction interests. We need a balanced team representing the long-term interest of Grenada not the short-term profits of rapacious developers.
The details of this situation were sent to you and the Attorney General by our lawyers dated 8 October 2024.
Best wishes and an enjoyable festive season to you all.
Coral Cove Group – Working for Grenada
contact@coralcovegrenada.org
https://coralcovegrenada.org/news-and-updates/