Winning the fight for public beaches
DISCOVERY BAY community groups have won a major victory. Peach Beach is not going to be privatised. It will soon be upgraded by the Government and maintained as a public beach. It took a lot of hard work. A ‘Save our Beaches’ campaign was launched. There were protest meetings in the square, media interventions, and negotiations with politicians. Just a constant struggle!
Citizens shouldn’t have to resort to these extreme measures to ensure public access to beaches. Our Government should be guarding our right to enjoy the natural resources of this country. It’s not only tourists who should come to Jamaica and feel all right. We should all be at home in our own country.
Rescuing Peach Beach and the adjacent Fisherman’s Beach from the grasp of greedy tourism interests is a victory for all of us. Not just Discovery Bay! Community groups have shown that public pressure can compel politicians to do the right thing. But there’s many a slip between the cup and the lip. Or, in this case, between the talk of politicians and their actions!
All the same, I’m optimistic that the Government will actually keep its promise and develop Peach Beach and Fisherman’s Beach as part of its renewed programme to ensure that there’s at least one wellmaintained public beach in each parish. That number is completely inadequate. But I suppose it’s marginally better than the present state of affairs: derelict beaches with no facilities.
LESSONS FROM CAYMAN
The government of Cayman could give our backward politicians lessons on beach access. Through the Public Lands Commission (PLC), Cayman has started to signpost all of the 121 registered public rights of way to the sea. It’s one thing to say that all beaches are public. But if citizens can’t access these public beaches, they might as well be private.
A September 11 article posted on the Cayman News Service website quotes the PLC chair, Rupert Vasquez: “Proper signage that is highly visible immediately brings to the public’s eyes the physical location of any public beach access. It encourages maximum usage and the full benefits of these accesses dedicated for the general public’s enjoyment. It also sends a clear message to all that the public has full rights and can use these public beach accesses with absolute confidence and without fear.”
Vasquez’s reference to fear is deliberate. Even in Cayman, where all beaches are public, wealthy property owners try to control access. The Cayman News Service reports, “Stories of locals and visitors been [sic] shooed off beaches by oceanfront property owners continues to be a common complaint, as well as signs placed by landowners warning people to stay off what they believe is their private beach.”
An architect who has done planning work in Negril recently told me that the seven-mile beach has legal access roads along its entire length. Over the years, most of them have been blocked up and captured, presumably by hoteliers. These must be identified and opened up again for public access. And signposted!
ALL-EXCLUSIVE MENTALITY
Last week, one of my mischievous friends asked me how come I wasn’t at the official opening of the new Puerto Seco Beach. Of course, I hadn’t been invited. But it seems as if I was very much present in my absence. According to my friend, my name came up quite often. I can just imagine.
When I went to Puerto Seco Beach in August, entering from the sea, the manager graciously invited me to tour the property. I declined. I didn’t want “freeness”. I can afford to pay to enter from the road. But what about the average Jamaican who can’t?
Most of the people I’ve spoken to admitted that it was relatives visiting from abroad who paid for them to go to Puerto Seco. With apologies to Buju Banton:
Who can afford to pay will pay
But what about those who can’t, they will have to stay Outside Opportunity a scarce, scarce commodity
In these times, I say
At the northeasterly edge of Puerto Seco Beach, there’s a sign on a wall jutting out into the sea: NOTICE YOU ARE NOW EXITING PUERTO SECO BEACH ACTIVITIES BEYOND THIS POINT ARE SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK This is the ‘all-exclusive’ hotel mentality. Puerto Seco Beach seems to be a hotel without rooms. And the message is clear: There is danger off-property. In November 2017, Taleb Rifa, secretary general of the UN World Tourism Organization, gave a stern warning at the Global Conference on Jobs and Inclusive Growth, held in MoBay: “With regard to community involvement and internal agenda, there need to be no walls between the visitor and the community.” He added, “We can’t let our visitors live in bubbles. That is not acceptable anymore.”
Rifa is absolutely right. But it’s not only visitors who need to burst out of bubbles and go exploring beyond the walls of their hotels. Wealthy Jamaicans must learn to resist greed and share natural resources with the less fortunate. Proverbial wisdom warns, ‘Craven choke puppy dog.’ Even big, bad guard dogs can choke on greed.