Dolphins

Dolphins Plus makes a play for Anguilla. Word has reached me that representatives of the Florida-based Dolphins Plus met with tourism officials last week to discuss opening a facility on Anguilla. The site of the jetty at Forest Bay was tentatively suggested to them. The Dolphins Plus representatives were so encouraged by this meeting that they are said to be planning a return trip in four weeks time to meet with government.

         Some of our shorter-than-normal-sighted tourism reps are pressing the tourism department for this type of entertainment to be introduced into Anguilla. Apparently, they want to attract more of the Disney World crowd to our shores. Our political representatives are being encouraged to whistle the same tune. They are desperate for any type of project that will bring a crowd, any crowd, to Anguilla. It would give them an opportunity to claim that they are bringing “employment” to Anguillians. This is a perfect example of Juvenal's bread and circuses.

         Anguilla used to be considered a five star resort destination.  That was before construction of the previous dolphin prison, now mercifully closed.  Regretfully, as the intelligence and quality level of our visitors has deteriorated, so has that of our tourism advisers. As we continue to scrape the bottom of the tourism barrel we are once again considering the construction of a prison circus for the entertainment of the more scruffy parts of our market.

         Dolphins Plus are headquartered in Key Largo, Florida. Their website claims that they come to the dolphin pen business with a "different" approach. They say they are more humane and educational. If you believe that, I have a tower in Paris I want to sell you. Here are some recently taken photos of their prison facility at Key Largo.

The only sight more depressing I can think of is San Quentin Prison.  I sure hope they do a better job of constructing a containment facility in Anguilla than they did in Key Largo.

         Has anyone smelled the excrement yet? If you have not, read up on the Dolphins Plus adventures a few years ago in Dominica and Tortola. This is a small example of what awaits us in Anguilla if this project is permitted.

         Fortunately, it does not have to happen.  Before this project can get off the ground, there are many obstacles that Dolphins Plus will have to overcome. A sample of them include:

         The shallow depth of the sea in the bay. There is no significant depth of sand that can be dredged. There is solid rock below and around the Forest Bay jetty. Dynamite will be needed to get the needed depth for dolphin pens. The cost alone would be prohibitive.  If they go any further out into the bay in search of depth, they will block the entrance to the harbour. How would the fishermen take that development?

         Has anyone considered what sort of breakwater will need to be constructed to attain the protection these sea mammals require when they are caged? The cost would make the project unaffordable.  And, what would constructing a breakwater do to the health of the Bay? Does anyone swim in nearby Marigot harbour since they constructed their breakwater?

         The requisite Environmental Impact Study will be interesting to read. What impact, if any, will the chemicals leaching from the Corito Landfill a half mile away have on the health of the dolphins? And what of the proposed nearby deep water harbour?

         Forest Bay Beach has its swimming devotees. The beach is a mere hundred yards down-current. There are Anguillians who regularly take their constitutional swim there, some in the mornings and others in the evenings. Will anyone still want to swim there after the dolphins are installed?

         Has anyone told Joyce or Dame Bernice about this proposal to place a five-star dolphin toilet pit in the front yard of their Conch Bay property? If not, please do so now. Let us see Dolphins Plus try to deal with a combination of those two ladies.

Cozumel

Is Anguilla turning into Cozumel without the water skis?  Besides the old canard of the value of our people, Anguilla’s principal resource is its famed beaches.  We will never be a Singapore or a Switzerland.  Those countries were truly without any resources save for their strategic locations.  They had something else to capitalize on, and to make their people rich and comfortable.  They practised a strict attention not only to laws but to rules and standards.  That is something that our spoiled and semi-literate Anguillian children have not attained in this generation.  So, given the special significance of our beaches in providing employment and attracting investment, we would expect that the authorities would do their utmost to attend to their safeguarding.  Anguilla’s beaches should be sacrosanct, dedicated to the public use, and with all private structures forbidden to be built on them.  This has actually been our government’s claim for decades.  So, it is important to express outrage when the rules are broken by one of us. 

Vehicles are not permitted to be driven on the beach.  If it is not a law, then it is certainly a well-publicised rule.  This rule is being broken more and more, particularly by locals.  Sandy Ground and Rendezvous Beaches are becoming more and more like a racetrack.  Visitors have the rule that it is illegal to drive a vehicle on the beach pummeled into them by all the tourist literature.  Can we locals not follow the same simple rule?

So, you can imagine my disgust and dismay when I saw this fellow streaking by in some sport vehicle, at full speed, and making a racket of noise, on Meads Bay Beach. 

It seems clear to me that no employee of one of our major new resorts would take it on his own to joy ride on the public beach like this.  One has to assume that he had been sent out by his supervisor to test fly the vehicle.  Maybe they are going to enter it in Le Mans next?

Of course, it may have been part of a conspiracy.  Perhaps he had been instructed to keep the beach clear of tourists between Viceroy Hotel and Frangipani Hotel?  Could it be that he was actually on duty, and not sloping off as I at first suspected?  No, I decided, too far-fetched.

I guess it was just sheer Anguillian slackness, and a few old tourists on the beach did not count.  Besides, it serves them right.  Who told them to come and pollute our beach with their sad presence?

At last, even the best of things must come to an end, and one must return to boring work.

In my humble opinion, this fellow in question should be investigated by the police.  If he has committed an offence, he should be prosecuted.  If not for what he did, at least pour encourager les autres.  He should next be fired from his job.  He should be given a job letter that makes him permanently unemployable in any part of the tourism sector.  Following that, management at Viceroy Hotel should call all construction staff to a meeting, and advise them that anyone joy riding on the beach will be summarily dismissed.  It is not only illegal, it brings the establishment into disrepute.  Then, every resort in Anguilla ought to be requested by the Tourism Department to do the same thing.

Does no one around here have any standards?

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.  

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.

Long Bay

Long Bay is beckoning us to come and have a swim. Long Bay is another access problem waiting to explode. One public access to the beach used to be the road that now leads to Oliver’s Restaurant.

I remember 35 years ago we used to drive down it to the beach next to Howard Clark’s house. That road was given away by Hubert years ago to Oliver. The road has been diverted from where it once ran and now ends in Oliver's car park. With his permission, you may be able to staircase to get onto the beach.

All the other roads off this road appear to be private roads.

Another traditional public access to the beach lay further to the west. It has been effectively closed off by Geoff Fieger. It used to run directly to the beach from just east of Lucy’s restaurant. It seems that Mr Fieger wanted this road to come to his house directly. No doubt with the permission of the Planning Department, he built his house directly in the path of the road. In exchange, he gave the public an alternative access to the west of his property.

However, he has fenced in the last 50 feet of it before the beach. The result is that anyone driving up will think they are trespassing on private property, and will not use it to access the beach. To help you to make up your mind, there is a sign on a column. It proclaims the gravel path “Fieger Villa beach access”.

Additionally, the access is now squeezed between concrete monuments, both lying down and standing. Some helpful person has even left a pile of sand and stones lying in the way. It appears that the idea of this further obstruction is to suggest very strongly that the use of the path is limited to the guests of the Fieger Villa.

There used to be a third road that led to Long Bay beach. A little further to the east of Howard Clark’s road was the access that ran down to the beach to the west of Long Bay Pond.

The Planning Department permitted Robert FX Sillerman to enclose the end of it where it approached the beach. He has included it in his high wall.

Mr Sillerman’s wall reaches upto the pond, so that it is now impossible to get from the road to the beach without wading through the pond.

God alone knows who permitted this abortion. Ministers have apologised to the people of West End and have promised to rebuild this public access to the beach. That was three years ago, and nothing up to this time has happened. In any event, that would involve filling in part of the pond, an important wetland habitat with nesting birds. Another abortion of a solution.

There is no public right of way to drive your car up to Long Bay beach. This is not the fault of any of the persons mentioned in this post. They have no responsibility to protect public access to the beach. That is the duty and responsibility of our Planning Department and our Surveys Department. They are expected to ensure there are signs at every public access saying “Beach access”. We expect them to be alert to notice when there is any infringement of a public right of way. Individual members of the public have no legal right to enforce a public right of way. That is what the Attorney-General’s Chambers are there for.

The Surveys Department know from their records where the public accesses in Anguilla are. These public rights of way are not noted on the Land Registers, due to a defect in the relevant law. Public rights of way will not be apparent to someone who searches the public Registers. The government records kept in the Survey Department are not part of the Land Registry records. Even if the persons mentioned above had searched the public Land Registers for a record of public rights over their lands, they would not have found them mentioned.

The Anguillian public expects public rights of way to appear on the publicly available Land Registers. It is pure negligence and cowardice why they do not. We now have no way of knowing how many of the three roads described above were public rights of way. If they ever were, they are now inaccessible to the public.

If you want to swim at Long Bay beach now, better hire a boat. There is public access by sea from Road Bay.

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