As a concerned Bajan and an obsessed island lover, I wanted to send Barbados Free Press this aerial image of the Port Ferdinand development as it progresses. I must say it isn’t pretty. I hope you all will decide to post this awful image on your site for all of your island readers to see.
Hopefully this horrendous image will invoke the Bajan society to fight for what remains of OUR PRECIOUS BARBADOS! These unnecessary acts of indiscriminate development have wreaked havoc on the Bajan landscape and continue to do so!
Everyday I am left in tears when I think about how overdeveloped Barbados has gotten and I become even more saddened and horrified when I think about my beloved island’s future. IT MUST STOP! I always wonder why our people do not act if our government isn’t willing to. Can’t they see we are being robbed of our various birthrights, beach access, windows to the sea, land and serenity?!? Barbados MUST BE SAVED! I am only 16 but I am willing to act. And the fact that I don’t even live in Barbados DOES NOT STOP ME! LETS SAVE BARBADOS TOGETHER!
Sincerely,
Prince of Barbados/Bajan Prince/ I LOVE BARBADOS!!!!
P.S.
As you may know Foul Bay is next on the chopping block for development. It has now become the proposed site for the Pure Beach Resort & Spa. Lets stop it before its too late! Let’s Protect Barbados’s Lush Green Land and White Sandy Beaches for ALL!
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Further Reading
Barbados Travel Advisor: King Ferdinand Of Arrogance Finds A Port In Barbados At Last
Barbados Free Press 
Thank your for this research. I feel saddened by this news. I am so tired of dealing with these kinds of issues here!
Not a pretty site. The only way to stop it is to elect leaders who will actually do something and not just talk. Make this an issue next election. Maybe the time has come for the Barbados Green Party to emerge! We need more young people like Bajan Prince to get involved. Good work!
I hope someone listens to you, as you are correct in what you say. Your Island will soon just become the same as everywhere else that was a nice holiday destination but becomes overdeveloped. Add to this the recent reports of crime and people being attacked the future is not looking bright. Unless you are a multi millionaire who can afford one of the big properties with its own pool and land.
It is sad for the Island and sad for your people.
Did you ever see a construction site that looked pretty??
Please get real.
In 5 yrs. time when it’s all landscaped, you’ll be singing a difrnt song.
Barbados needs the jobs this will offer,
since I’m hearing that ppl getting laid off from BIG jobs at a fairly alarming rate!
You want progress and growth of the economy, but no temporary scars on the landscape.
Everything can’t be win/win, all the time.
Looks bad FROM THE AIR, you can hardly see this, from the road!
First of all I dont believe Bajan Prince is 16, or that he lives overseas. Must be a St Peter resident with an axe to grind.
I agree with Anonymous…no construction site looks good.
With this sort of thinking..there would be no Deep Water Harbour or Airport to accommodate the largest airlines.
I am all for protecting our coast, and even improving on it, with access to beaches by the public as a Mandatory aspect of any approved development plan.
What saddens me more is to see a published list of 100 or so houses every few months, set for destruction by the Ministry of Health. Some of them are beautiful little chattel houses, that are a real “tourist attraction”, and part of “Heritage Tourism” that is the latest buzzword.
It is very difficult to find a traditional Bajan Chattel house these days, thanks to MIOH.
Government, on the other hand allows buildings like the Old Eye Hospital, and the Empire theatre to fall apart and/or be vandalized and burnt, and then left there as some sort of protected Eyesore!
Attractions like Sam Lords Castle have been allowed to suffer the same fate.
The truth is…no one in Government cares…its just a job, and lets see how much I can stash away while my party is in power.
next they will start building condos down Bathsheba and Cattlewash, because lets face, where else is left?? It’s not like ANY of our Governments give a rat’s @$$ about the rest of us and our rights, or even their own children’s rights and future.
To Anonymous, I do agree that Barbados needs more job opportunities and should take advantage of every chance it has to provide these jobs, but leaving scars on our landscape is hardly necessary. Have you ever heard of Ecotourism, Geotourism and Sustainable Development? Barbados needs to realize that the traditional tourism trend of destroy and build is taking a toll on the beauty of our country. We must remember that Barbados is a very small nation (in fact one the smallest densest and nations in the world) with limited land space. What will happen when our land is no longer in existence!? You say that Barbados needs more jobs but in a short few years foreign developers will not be motivated to set up shop in Barbados because it will be so overdeveloped. How will it look with wall to wall condos on Barbados’s now eroding coastline? From the looks of it Barbados is setting up its own demise. In order to ensure a successful and prosperous tourism industry the protection of the environment is a must! Tourists travel to our island to discover our unique culture and to experience what sets us apart from the rest of the Caribbean and the world. This cannot be successfully achieved if Barbados has no unique coastline with a culture which SCREAMS AMERICANIZED! Not only will this rampant development prohibit tourist from having a true island experience but it will also reduce the quality of life for all Bajans. With the reduction of green spaces, views to the sea and land for sale, Bajans will longer be able to roam free in our homeland. Soon beaches will become private and the few public green spaces which exist will be sold to development. Bajans will soon be forced to move from their quaint chattel houses in the countryside to some monstrous high rise in the city. If these trends continue unheeded, our island will no longer be a paradise. It is never too late to change the obvious destiny for which we are bound. Barbados is STILL a Caribbean jem! We must continue safeguard her and all of her beauties.
Tell the government to stop the overdevelopment!
No development here!
LONG LIVE BARBADOS!
@Anonymous
The “it will create jobs” is an old tired argument used by people who are happy to have the environment destroyed to create a few (mostly temporary, low paying) jobs. This is a short sided way of thinking and not looking at the long term affects. Lets face it, Barbados is becoming way over developed, way too fast. This overdevelopment is bound to have an affect on tourism sooner or later, and when the tourists stop coming….then what? This is not “progress”.
30 yrs. ago I was predicting that -one day-
Barbados will be like Manhattan.
How can it be otherwise??? Restraint? LOL
see comment by previous poster about rodent’s rectum!
I wish the Foul Bay development all the best.
Great bay, horrible name, looks like a dump for the last 40 years.
I hope they change the name and make it look like a worthwhile beach
for once in its ignored life.
You know, I’m in kind of two minds about this one…. if you look immediately to the South there’s Port St. Charles, which would have looked just as bad during construction.
To the North there is Six Mens Tenantry, hardly an environmentally delicate area.
Then I consider that this development will lead to jobs and benefit the economy and at that point I can say that the “No development” cries seem overly simplistic.
The same people that make comments about “It’s not like ANY of our Governments give a rat’s @$$ about the rest of us and our rights, or even their own children’s rights and future.” will tomorrow be on this blog complaining about how life is hard and there are no jobs.
We cannot divorce the two matters. OSA once said “Everyone wants to get to heaven, but nobody wants to die” this is a clear illustration of that.
But……..
with the lack of clear policy positions no wonder people are nervous. Port Ferdinand was not a particularly environmentally sensitive area, but the Scotland District is, and there seems to be precious little in clear policy about it.
So far the only real developmental policy that seems to be in place is “There will be no private beaches in Barbados” and even that seems to be something that is at times tenuous. (As the people at Mullins). There need to be clear, transparent rules about access to the beaches and development in Barbados. Because to have the lifestyle our people aspire to we have to develop.
I used to live right next door to this development, in fact, I think my old house is a site office or something.
Every time I drive by I get tears in my eyes for the beautiful, green gully that used to be there, the turtle nesting area on the beach and the old world serenity that used to be.
It is enough now. I understand we need jobs and so on but at what expense? Our mangroves are all but gone and our reefs are just about dead.
The government needs to wake up and preserve what is left of our beautiful island.
To Anonymous, I do agree that Barbados needs more job opportunities and should take advantage of every chance it gets to provide these jobs, but leaving scars on our landscape is hardly necessary. Have you ever heard of Ecotourism, Geotourism and Sustainable Development? Barbados needs to realize that the traditional tourism trend of destroy and build is taking a toll on the beauty of our country. We must remember that Barbados is a very small nation (in fact one the smallest and densest nations in the world) with limited land space. What will happen when our land is no longer in existence!? You say that Barbados needs more jobs but in a short few years foreign developers will not be motivated to set up shop in Barbados because it will be so overdeveloped. How will it look with wall to wall condos on Barbados’s now eroding coastline? From the looks of it Barbados is setting up its own demise. In order to ensure a successful and prosperous tourism industry the protection of the environment is a must! Tourists travel to our island to discover our unique culture and to experience what sets us apart from the rest of the Caribbean and the world. This cannot be successfully achieved if Barbados has no unique coastline with a culture which SCREAMS AMERICANIZED! Not only will this rampant development prohibit tourist from having a true island experience but it will also reduce the quality of life for all Bajans. With the reduction of green spaces, views to the sea and land for sale, Bajans will longer be able to roam free in our homeland. Soon beaches will become private and the few public green spaces which exist will be sold to development. Bajans will soon be forced to move from their quaint chattel houses in the countryside to some monstrous high rise in the city. If these trends continue unheeded, our island will no longer be a paradise. It is never too late to change the obvious destiny for which we are bound. Barbados is STILL a Caribbean jem! We must continue safeguard her and all of her beauties.
Tell the government to stop the overdevelopment!
No development here!
LONG LIVE BARBADOS!
It never ceases to amaze me that Bajans allow this to happen.
Why? Why do you allow foreigners to block off PUBLIC beaches? Why do you allow any Tom, Dick or Harry to come in and buy up land all over the place? Do you think you could go to Europe and buy up their property at such a pace? Do you think you could restrict their beaches?
Instead people grumble at the so called returnees – i.e. BAJANS. At least when they buy property it will be lived in and will not stay empty for half the year. They will spend their money in the island and the property will remain in Bajan hands, to be passed down the family.
Barbados is too small a country to be built over the way it is. At the rate things are going with all the ‘luxury’ developments, there won’t be any land left for growing food or housing the people who are on an average wage.
It is about time that we have someone who is not afraid to voice the opinion that many have but are too scared to openly admit. Surprisingly, this has come from a mere 16 year old, and a non-Barbados native at that. Why is it that we who are living in the middle of this cultural and environmental degradation refuse to stand up and stop over-development? Yes we need jobs, but we also need to preserve our island’s beauty. There are many other ways to increase job opportunities without decreasing our beaches, our beauty and our culture. Prince of Barbados has made an extremely valid point. The Bajan government must take heed to his words, his warning, and his plea to preserve his place, my place, your place of ancestory.
There can be no ‘development’ or ‘construction’ unless there is corresponding ‘destruction.’ We will have to decide whether we want to stay put and grow cobwebs — or whether we want to compete on the world scene.
It’s an ugly picture. However ‘nature’ will cover it over when the digging is finished AND if the ‘developers’ are sensitive — they can plant and cover the ‘scar’ — like how the ladies nice up their faces.
But let’s decide… shall we ‘develop’ or shall we drop out?
one of the concepts that Barbadians seem to miss in these threads is that the GOVERMENT IS THE PEOPLE.
If you think that those that act for you are not carrying out your wishes then you need to change this sooner, rather than later.
Look in the mirror, if you dare.
“It will create jobs” is an old tired argument used by people who are happy to have the environment destroyed to create a few (mostly temporary, low paying) jobs. This is a short sided way of thinking and not looking at the long term affects of over development. Lets face it, Barbados is becoming way over developed, way too fast. This over development is bound to have an affect on tourism sooner or later, and when the tourists stop coming….then what? This is not “progress”.
I agree with many of the comments on this issue. @ who me?, they say that there are “no private beaches” but when you go to swim at the beaches in front of these luxury hotel, they look at you like you don’t belong there, when they are the ones visiting! In the words of Gabby “The beach is mine”!
@ HM, there is no way a foreigner can go to the US and buy up any property especially on their shoreline without some proof of residency, so why are we allowing it in Barbados???????
If the islands is in need for money or for the economy to flourish, there are other ways then selling off our shoreline to foreigners. How about building villas or beach houses owned buy the government that they can come and rent for as long as they want. That way jobs will be provided for our island natives, cause we all know wealthy people do not like to clean, cook or do laundry.
We are an independent island and it would be great for us to continue that way and not be dependent on the these foreigners, like Tiger Woods, Oprah, Mick Jagger, etc. to come in and buy big chunks of our land.
It is funny, when I hear these people talk about how BEAUTIFUL Bim is, but yet we are selling it to these same people and allowing them the cut the beauty from the ones that nourish the land.
PS @ Prince of Barbados, since they are allowing foreigners to come in and buy land maybe they will allow one to run it one day, in a few more years you can be an “influential man” in our government.
Telescope
When you get close to 95% annnual average occupancy of your hotels instead of 50% or less, you might have an argument to destroy valuable land for absentee overseas owners who vacaion 2 weeks to a month each year.
Until then, your argument does not hold water and is all about short term gains at the expense of the the future of our children!
Fill up your hotel rooms year round first and make Barbados a tourist destination place before destroying new lands. This is not progress.
To short term gains,
Excellent point, except you forgot about a very important impediment to your proposal.
If there are no new developments then the elected and appointed officials who control the land development permissions would have empty offshore bank accounts!
Nope. Sorry…. although your idea has merit, there’s no room for anyone to “wet their beak” to borrow a phrase from Godfather II.
““Young man, I hear you and your friends are stealing goods. But you don’t even send a dress to my house. No respect! You know I’ve got two daughters. This is my neighborhood. You and your friends should show me some respect. You should let me wet my beak a little.” …Don Fanucci Thompson in “The Godfather Part II”
Barbados Free-For-All: No Conflict Of Interest Rules, No Transparency In Spending Your Tax Dollars
BFP has hit the nail right on the head! Even though “short term gains” makes an extremely valid point, this proposal will surley prohibit corrupt politicians from being able to pocket Barbados’s hard earned tourism dollars. Greed has influenced the decisions made by many of the island’s government officals and thus, our island has been allowed to be disfigured! Come on now, we MUST act! Lets STOP with all of de lip service! We get that enough from de government! An organized protest should be established! Anyone willing to call for change in our lovely country? Let me know!
Tell the government to stop the overdevelopment!
No development here!
LONG LIVE BARBADOS!
When this development is up and running will all the mailers who have opposed this development, refuse the tourist dollar that will becoming from this development in protest?? People have to understand that Barbados hotels are in need of a bit of refurbishment as you can not stand still as today’s tourist wants a bit more then what there are now getting in Barbados this could be why tourism is suffering in numbers, year on year this and the catching up of other caribbean island in the tourism industry is a wake up call to Barbados that they may need to look else where for the island main income
I believe in developing, but not OVERdeveloping. I went home in 2008 and went on a beach in St. Peter with my kids. There were several dozen beach chairs on the beach and not too many people so I sat on one of the chairs. Do you know that I as told that I could not sit on a stupid chair, that was not in use, and had more than several dozen still free. This is not the Barbados I grew up in. I was in shock. I was appalled. The chairs belonged the private hotel that was on a public beach!!!! The next thing you know, we are going to have to start paying to go on the beaches. The beaches will belong to all the private hotels and other private establishments. We don’t need to drop out, but we also don’t need our island’s beauty and its cultureto die out.
Bajan Yankee…why would you think that you could just sit on a “stupid chair that was not in use”…knowing that it was private property.
Would you jump into an empty(private) car that was parked in a public carpark?
Don`t be stupid.
The bigger point is that these tasteless land “developers” are being allowed to alter Barbados forever is missed. The St Peter’s Bay development in Road View is without a doubt the most hideous eyesore on the entire island and has yet to sell even a single unit. Where are the tax dollars, jobs, and tourists? All they have accomplished is a destruction of the west coast beaches with the environmentally unsound groynes that their lackey Brewster approved when he was not out awarding himself no tender jobs—aside: is he still employed?!?
Port Ferdinand has not only displaced life long residents, it will in the end be yet another vulgar, tacky monument to the corrupt few who desire to be seen as country squires pon WE lil rock. They are not even content to fleece the rich tourists; the broad daylight theft of the land grab at Coverly should have every Bajan screaming for an investigation.
Yatinkiteasy…It was a public beach. The chairs were out on the PUBLIC beach. Learn to read so you won’t leave stupid replies. If they want a private hotel, they should have a private beach!!!
The people responsible for allowing this negative over development must be intellectually challenged and/or criminals feathering their own nests. The Bajan people should rise up and be heard!!! Do you not realise that they will have factored in a projected lifespan on a lot of these projects and at some point in the future when they have made their fat profits, these very same developers will cut and run, leaving you with a rotting concrete jungle!
BLLAAA, BLA, BLAAAA,,,,,,,,
All o wunnah can dance and prance till de cows DONT come or AFTER they do come home,,,,,,,
as for “mathilde”, she dun got it right,,,,,,,,,
De Plans for Bathsheba,or should we call it the East Coast already in progress,,,,Yep yuh bettuh believe it,,,,,,Nodding of heads,Signing ,,,Etc .,Already on the production line,,,,,,,,Whooooo just look at the $$$$$$$$$$$$$ of that area,,,Heee Haw!!!!!!!!!!
YA WANNA BET!!!!!!!!!GOOOOOODBYEEEEE the National Park (THOUGHT) yep thats right THOUGHT of the East Coast……………..Betcha bottom dollah WHAM BANG THANK YOU MAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@ Whistling Frog
Whats with all of the negativity and sarcasm? Have you know faith? You think the east Coast residents will allow over there to go the route of the west and south? I think NOT! And besides the sea to rough over dey for alot of luxury development to go up, not to mention the fact that the area is prone to land slippage! All de developments would just fall in de sea! The East Coast protects ITSELF!!!!! Also the east isnt like the platinum coast where Caribbean blue water and white sand beaches are in abundance. The east doesnt have the Caribbean appeal like the west and south. The east coast is like a completely different island! Even though the East Coast is BEAUTIFUL some people find it rather unappealing after spending much of their time in the crystal clear waters on the opposite ends of the island.
Tell the government to stop the overdevelopment!
No development here!
LONG LIVE BARBADOS!
@ Anonymous.
Yes Barbados needs jobs but not just more service industry jobs. Barbados needs to produce something to survive not just rely on tourism all the time.
Dear Prince of Bdos etc.,,,,
Maybe you should be Prince of Ostriches instead.
The Edgewater Hotel has already started the ball rolling with its Condos Development etc,,,,,,,,
The real reason that the National Park lesiglation has not been effected yet is obvious Govts knowledge that this is the Last Frontier available for development with incoming $$$$$$.
as for the geographical topography etc,,,technology will take care of building problems.
Soooo Mr.Prince take your head out of the sand and smell the mauby…………….
In case you haven’t realised it, there is already very little space on the beach for us locals to sit anymore. The beaches are all taken up with empty lounge chairs put there by greedy beach vendors. Try brining your own chair, or even laying a towel in between all these horrible chairs. You will be met with a rain of abuse! It seems to me that the beach only belongs to some of us!
Steve,
What do you think is the best way to ensure our existing hotels have the profitability to (as you rightly point out) refurbish?
FILL them up with highly annual occupancy at sustainable rates.
Many years ago I submitted a proposal to the Minister of Tourism and BTA. It was called 10/10
and the objective was to by creative marketing increase the average annual occupancy of our 120 small hotels by 10 per cent and average room rate by US$10.
If this could be achieved, it would have raised annual turnover of each property by 37 per cent and significantly improved profitability (and tax collection).
That improved profitability would have allowed us to take the small hotels to a higher level.
Of course, I never even got a response!
@ whistling frog
First of all you need to stop being so harsh. You think that technology can stop the roaring Atlantic from crashing against the East’s coastline and destroying everything on land??!!!!???? NO!!!! You every hear bout Barbados succeeding in technological advances which would make that possible?????!?!!! Just musee meking sport! The East Coast is already being submerged! Just take a walk by the old train line and you will see that the tracks have somehow been able to end up in the Atlantic! Even if the East Coast is/was under seige it is probably because naysayers like yourself fail to speak out against de government and feel that our island isn’t worth saving. The government is going to be corrupt whether we like it or not. It is a fact of life. That is why it is up to us to fight for wuh belong tuh we! Instead of you already writing off the East Coast, you SHOULD be fighting to preserve it! Bajans need to be more proactive! Ef wunna could mek plans to go down de road and wuk up and get on bad til de sun go down, why wunna cyan organize several NON VIOLENT protests to tek back we country!? That seems much easier than having to plan to gyrate and cause a whole lot ah noise! Lets save our country! Don’t kiss her goodbye just yet!
@whistling frog
It seems that some of you here have no respect and nothing good to say. We have a 16 year old (our future) who is interested in saving the future of our island, so why would you be rude and disrespectful. Maybe if more of the adults were educated and informed as “Prince” then the government wouldn’t be so easy to bulldoze our homes and build up property for tourist instead of focusing on the Bajan natives. It seems that you may be one of the government people on here trying to speak up for the goverment so that what they are doing doesn’t seem so bad. Try to focus on the issue being discussed rather than typing out your @ss!
Bjerkhamn is King and Master in Barbados. Check good what he get since 2008. The best investment in Barbados seems to be an investment in a political party.
For those of you leaving comments about the fact that this site will look fine after it has been developed need to consider the impacts that this type of construction practice has on the environment. Removing top soil and everything else for that matter causes erosion, it completely removes the existing ecosystem, brings invasive plants and animals in with new soil, shall I go on?
If anyone was familiar with sustainable development and green building practices you would know that this type of construction practice in extremely invasive to the environment and is not a sustainable practice at all!
For a a rapidly developing island that claims to be focusing on moving toward a green economy and according to the UNDP should be incorporating sustainable development practices into development we are not doing a very good job!
Another ecological disaster!