Barbados Environmental Activist Damages Expensive Condo Sale Sign
Barbados Beach Access Vigilante Strikes!
The above photo was received by Barbados Free Press from a person who used an anonymous internet re-mailer proxy out of (we think) Germany.
Apparently someone vandalized this large sign for the Ocean Two condo project. It is obvious that the damage was not a spur-of-the-moment action as the words “Destroying Our Beaches One Condo At A Time” were written using a stencil outline that must have taken some time to prepare.
The photo was received with the following statement…
“The attached photo shows how the people responsible for destroying Barbados’ coastlines (the culprits) recently became the victims of silent protest. The traditional media has failed to effectively highlight the destruction of our fragile coastline that continues under the guidance of these inconsiderate, money-hungry, and careless real estate tycoons. Perhaps BFP can bring this potentially devastating trend to the forefront. If we don’t fight to save our own island, who else will?“
Barbados Free Press cannot and will never support the criminal destruction of private property – but we do agree that the traditional Barbados media has chosen to receive advertising revenues from condo projects in return for silence about our disappearing beach access and views.
News is news though and it looks like we have a Barbados Beach Access Vigilante on the loose!
Ocean Two Condo website here
Further Reading For Prospective Condo Buyers In Barbados…
Only A Fool Would Buy A Condo In Barbados – Canadian In 17th Year Of Barbados Condo Hell
Barbados Free Press 
Serves the bastards right! I hope the vigilante do the replacement sign too.
where is this project? ( photo of Bathsheba? )
Who are the developers?
Who gave the approvals?
What consideration flowed?
As I suspect, There is slight hope. But I didn’t expect the sign to be vandalized.
In fact I do not support condos being built on beaches. It completely represents the uglification of our own landscape with these towering concrete monstrosities.
@ reality check: “Who gave the approvals? What consideration flowed?”
I may wonder if the ‘Town Planning’ was responsible for the majority of these condos being built in Barbados or is it a different organization. Surely the consideration isn’t with the public my guess.
.22
the former PM had overiding authority for most projects of any size or special approval process.
Town and Country decisions of any importance were rarely, if at all, made by the Chief Town Planner (only recommendations ).
Did the new PM keep this final land planning power authority?
and the questions remain, where is the project and who are the developers and which political advisors pushed this through?
Cherchez l’argent.
Ocean Two in St. Lawrence Gap
http://milliondollarhomes.co.uk/realestate.php?op=mi&id=517
To be fair, the development was built on the site of an existing derelict hotel, and the beach has been extensively rebuilt and stabilised with the project. The government, as a matter of urgency, needs to undertake a study of the contribution of these residential developments to the economy of Barbados. It is unfair to criticise something without knowing its positive impacts.
John Da Silva, it is unfair to build something without any rules except who can the builder know and pay off. Like they keep saying here at BFP there are no rules and there is no transparency to see if what rules we have are being broken.
So WHAT if it is a derelict hotel? We should have torn it down and put some green space or some beach. The Gap is nothing but buildings blocking the eye to the sea.
Almost certainly a British project AND a British sign vandal.
A lot of British people want to come here to spen a few days in the sun, while at the same time they resent other British people coming (and buying) property here.
It is a strange world.
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BFP says,
Hi J,
Interesting analysis. Why do you say British? Why not a Bajan educated in the UK? Why not a Bajan?
Just curious.
Quethetears wrote “The Gap is nothing but buildings blocking the eye to the sea.”
And yet everybody want to go to the Gap.
Nobody ever comes to my village.
Why not?
BFP wrote “but we do agree that the traditional Barbados media has chosen to receive advertising revenues from condo projects in return for silence ”
When you want to advertise a good or service (in your real life if you have one) where do you place your ad? The Nation right? Ah!!! I though so.
I place mine there too. A small ad run in the Fri/Sat/Sun paper will get me a nice tenant who pays in full and in time everytime.
The Nation and the Advocate are newspapers. Newspapers sell news, they also sell advertising space. It is so all over the world.
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BFP says,
J, the key is “in return for silence”
John Da Silva says,
“The government, as a matter of urgency, needs to undertake a study of the contribution of these residential developments to the economy of Barbados.”
The study the Government needs to undertake is the effect the removal of Beach access and windows to the sea is having on the youth and elderly in Barbados.
The current world wide recession will slow down condo development and sales for the next two or three years.
Hopefully that will give the government time to evaluate plans for the use of the remaining beaches and beachfront land in Barbados.
Is Ocean Two the one built on the old Dover Convention Centre site, the building that was owned by the Government and hence, the people of Barbados?
The question has been asked before, how exactly did the ‘Convention Centre’, change hands?
What vehicle has been used to transfer an asset of the people of Barbados into a private venture?
What were the sale proceeds and how was the market price established?
What study was done and approved to assess that this was indeed the best use of a national resource?
Transparency?
Thanks mercy the previous administration was removed last January.
Now we require some transparency from the current administration.
Can you of the current administration reading this please ensure that the above questions are answered publicly?
I think its great not Vandalism I do not condone this but I too am sick of this terrible CONDo fever Dengue was bad enough
There are so many developments going up on the South Coast, we went for a drive there yesterday, but its spreading to the villages.
In St Elizabeth Village in St Joseph,a development is planned on the site of the old supermarket. the idea is great even amazing, about as eco friendly as you can get, but totally out of keeping with this small village. What worries me about this one is the few people that live behind, the border fence has already blocked their view, the height of the houses, if I could only find out, will block them in completely.
http://www.stelizabethvillas.com. Developers are Solid Rock Development owners are Braback Ltd.
I’ve emailed twice and had ‘domain not known’ as a reply, friends in the UK are having better luck.
No, before anyone asks, it shouldn’t affect me at all, thats not while I’m moaning!! No one ever seems to care how developments impact on the immediate neighbourhood, obviously us ‘little’ people don’t matter.
I used to enjoy driving along the west coast…not any more…too oppressive.
South Coast is becoming much the same. St Lucy however still has some hope but for how long?
Lady Anon,
Take a drive from Sargeant Street, St. John, down the hill past Bath plantation, and follow the road through, past St. Margarets, right the way down the east coast to Andromeda, and believe me it will do your heart good. You will pass through little villages with modest, as well as not-so-modest Bajan houses, through little tree-lined gullies, up hill and down dale, lots of pastures and trees, and best of all, spectacular views of Bathsheba.
Having said that, I daresay those bastards, the developers who have spoilt our coastline, will come along, nod their heads in glee, rub their filthy hands together and say, “Oh, boy! Just the spot for condos”. My fervent prayer is that David Thompson will stop that from happening. Nil desperandum.
Nothing to worry about: the beauty of a worldwide depression is that the existing Condos aren’t selling and we shouldn’t see any new ones for a long, long time. Bad news of course is that it eliminates a huge revenue stream for government in a year where tourism is likely to decline by up to 40% (anyone seen how bad it’s looking in the UK and how low the pound is ?) with huge unemployment. I’ll admit that I’m delighted to watch all the greedy developers coming unstuck and people getting back to basics but 2009 ‘ent going to be fun. Perhaps we need to look at our agricultural and sugar sectors again ???
What derelict hotel on St. Lawrence Gap?? Oceans 2 is built on the site of Rainbow Beach Hotel (formerly Rainbow Reef)
The Development on the site of the old Convention Centre is Sapphire Beach – another monstrosity that should never have been approved. It has blocked off all the wind to the residences in the area as well as to some of the hotels. It is oppressive ugly and completely out of character to the Gap and Dover Beach.
Slowly but surely we are losing out beaches and this development is even advertised as a “gated community”!! Who the hell are the afraid of???
San Diego
I agree with your ‘drive’ though there are a few very large houses on the hill to and from Martins Bay, one complete with gold lion gateposts!It won’t be long before this area is developed more fully, Bath I hear through the grapevine is earmarked for considerable building.
Look at my post above to see the link to what is proposed in a little village! also walking Cattlewash by road a few times lately, there are a lot of line marks appearing………we also went to Merricks recently, no sign of anything there (thank goodness) and e mails to the developers have not had a response
Hope the activist keeps his/her stencil in working order as the developer has an Ocean 3 and 4 already approved.
Has anyone tried to go for a swim from Six Men’s to Holetown recently? there is virtually no access to the sea ,even if you are lucky enough to own a car and can reach the beach at Port St Charles. Mullins Beach has become a slum. Developers of condos have blocked public access and have learnt nothing from the experience of Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro where skyscraper hotels have turned the area immediately behind them( the beach is inaccessible) into a permanent derelict area.
Yes indeed. This Miami-ization of the Caribbean is vomituous.
Only Trinidad’s bad beaches can stop these fools from gobbling up our coastline. Too bad we can’t keep up with them inland! It’s worse there.
The Caribbean needs some sort of strict Architectural strictures for these mega-developers. These coral pink warts need to be demolished by law from the face of the earth and replaced with a more vernacular architecture.
To John Da Silva
Please – if you are going to comment on the positives of this development, get your facts right.
The site of this development was NOT derelict when the developers purchased it, it was operating as a fully functional hotel, who brought in a regular turnover of customers who in turn supported local stores and the local ecomony.
What about the people who have businesses in the area who now have to rely on someone who may use their condo for a couple of times a year.
I appreciate that some will be rented to tourists, but you will never attain a level of business for the locals to the likes of what has been lost.
Dennis
this blog is full of very uninformed people……starting with those who want to know how development permits are granted…..the role of the PM’s office, etc. The moaning starts before anyone has put in the effort to inform themselves of the processes involved. That said, T&C has several “master plans” for different areas on the island and most of these plans allow for the private owner of the land to do any of a number of things. T&C are not there to comment on the “tastefulness” of any designs per se, but to ensure that all the regulations governing density, parking, sewage, setbacks and so on are met. The PM’s office has the say on beach land and normally goes along with the report from T&C but the past PM allowed a number of the condo complexes to go ahead in spite of a negative report from T&C. These won’t get torn down anytime soon, so we are going to have to learn to live with them. It’s not all bad, most of the units will pay the exorbitant property taxes now charged for beachfront. (The average Bajan probably doesn’t know that most beachfront properties are paying in excess of $20,000 per year in tax……capped at $60,000) That will always be there to help out the treasury in a way that no one story chattel house ever could.
marvinbareback
Nice post, but has any thought gone into the effects of the local economy or are the Govt just looking at tax revenue dollars?
If so – very short sighted
Dennis
marvinbareback wrote “most beachfront properties are paying in excess of $20,000 per year in tax……capped at $60,000) That will always be there to help out the treasury in a way that no one story chattel house ever could.”
So!!!!!!
I paying in excess of $20,000 per year in tax too.
So does that give me the right to ugly up the place????
mmmmmm friend in the UK sent me details of the St Elizabeth Villas plans, which I confess I can’t understand, 5 floors altogether, one being the roof. quote from the e mail.
‘Our current preconstruction price on offer is USD 3.5M. Each villa is
approximately 3200 Sq.Ft. excluding basement space and contains 2 bedrooms,
2 ½ bathrooms’
According to this article it seems like the vandal was totally wrong about Ocean Two:
http://bimre.com/ocean-two-is-not-destroying-barbadoss-beaches-or-jobs/
It’s an remarkable article for all the internet people; they will obtain benefit from it
I am sure.