The Coral Cove Story
For decades, the site was known as Coral Cove Cottages and was a small group of cabins located well away from the shoreline. It was visited by tourists who wanted nothing more than solitude and a view of a beautiful, wild sea. It had no bar or restaurant or beach use to disturb the wildlife.
Now, a rich Chinese developer wants to park some money in Grenada. Supported by government agencies the developer, Charis Group, is applying for planning consent for an 80-room hotel (many of these are double or treble suites) on this small site. The local agent acting for the developer is Mr Barry Collymore, Chairman of the Grenada Tourism Authority. You may ask why is the Chairman of the GTA who is supposed to be promoting the ‘Pure Grenada’ theme for tourism instead promoting a scheme that is destroying it. Mr Collymore promised to send the local residents (the L’Ance aux Epines Association) an environmental impact assessment but he has failed to do so. He promised that he would present the scheme to the Association before it was submitted. He has failed to do so and the planning application was submitted quietly without notice to the community. Charis Group is represented legally in Grenada by Afi Ventour & Co. When approached for information on the plans for the site, the lawyers replied that, “my client instructs that there would be some upgrade and maintenance”. This was a barefaced lie by somebody (developer, agent or lawyer) since an outline planning application for a 120-room hotel had been submitted over a year before! A request to Ventour & Co for access to the developer was denied. A later request via Ventour & Co to work with the developer to achieve an acceptable development received no reply. The Planning and Development Authority said it would alert the L’Ance aux Epines Association if and when an application for full planning consent was received. It failed to do so. As with other big tourism developments, the whole process is opaque giving rise to suspicions that it is of more benefit to foreign investors, their local agents and local politicians than to Grenada.
