MARSHALL RECUSES HIMSELF AS AG; CONDUCTS JOE’S RIVER NEGOTIATIONS AS CONSTITUENCY REPRESENTATIVE
By Sheria Brathwaite
Progress is being made with the Joe’s River dispute between St Joseph residents and a developer responsible for a tourism project at Tenby, says Member of Parliament for St Joseph Dale Marshall.
He also disclosed that he is involved in the negotiations, trying to broker a deal in the matter.
He told this to the St Joseph Speaks town hall meeting on Thursday night at the Grantley Adams Memorial Secondary School.
“In the beginning I stayed out of the matter . . . It would have been imprudent for me to come out with any particular position knowing that I am the Attorney General and I might have to defend the Government’s interest in the matter. That would have been ill advised and it would have been wrong.
“However, the Prime Minister has given me the permission to recuse myself from the matter as Attorney General. In that regard, Minister [of Home Affairs Wilfred] Abrahams [acting as Attorney General], he is going to protect the Government’s interest. [The Prime Minister has also] given me the permission to get involved in the issue, not really to take a side, but of course you know which side I am on, but more to use my good offices to try to broker [a settlement].”
Marshall said progress is being made.
“We still have some ways to go but I’m meeting with our side over the course of the weekend and we will be engaging with the other side and hopefully we will bring this Tenby issue to resolution without too much more bluster, without too much argument and so on, and come to a settlement with minimum friction and minimum waste,” he said.
Even now that he is able to participate in the negotiation process, Marshall said that at the end of the day, the tourism project will still come on stream.
“We are trying to negotiate a settlement . . . a settlement never means that you get everything that you want. It doesn’t mean that the other side gets everything that we want. What it will require is for mature heads to sit down, see what we can agree on, see what we don’t agree on and try to find a middle ground so that we eliminate friction and that we eliminate waste.
“There is going to be a development on that location. The individual already has Town Planning permission and this Government, we don’t have any capacity in law to stop him. If we tried, there is no doubt that we will be facing a multi million dollar lawsuit. For better or worse, whatever you may feel about it as an individual, when an entity [or] a person has been given planning permission the Government has to honour it. If you got planning permission to build a shed, we couldn’t come and say stop. Whoever comes to Barbados to do business . . . they have to respect our traditional rights and those traditional rights are determined largely by law . . .,” said Marshall.
On March 7, several residents, joined by cultural Ambassador The Most Honourable Anthony “Gabby” Carter protested against the construction of two concrete columns at the Joe’s River bridge which residents said would block their access to Joe’s River Gully and Teacup and Saucer.
Two days later, High Court Judge Madam Justice Barbara Cooke-Alleyne granted a temporary injunction to stop Ullswater Investments Limited, the company owned by an Australian developer, which is responsible for transforming the old Edgewater Hotel at Tenby into a beach house and villa.
However, Cooke-Alleyne still has to make a decision on whether the existing structures have to be demolished. The hearing will resume on Monday, April 24.
sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb
