By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Environmentalists have warned that a Judicial Review challenge to the $5 million Blackbeard’s Cay project is “not off the table”, with the Government seemingly hesitating in giving the developers their Business Licence.

Sam Duncombe, director of reearth, accused the Government of breaching its own laws with respect to Blackbeard’s Cay by failing to follow the processes for granting approvals laid out in the Planning and Subdivisions Act 2010.

Ms Duncombe, whose organisation has become increasingly strident in its opposition to the project, told Tribune Business the Government was “stonewalling” and “putting us on the backburner” by refusing to respond to reearth’s requests for information on the permits/approvals granted to Blackbeard’s Cay.

Describing this as “totally unacceptable in a democratic society”, she added that the Government only became transparent over major development projects when “people are screaming for it”.

While reearth’s major complaint is the planned dolphin encounter at Blackbeard’s Cay, private sector interests - notably many Bay Street retailers - have also opposed the project on the grounds it will take thousands of visitors away from downtown Nassau and hurt their businesses.

Calling on Bay Street to ‘come out from the shadows’, Ms Duncombe urged its businesses to join reearth’s battle, and questioned: “What’s to be afraid of?”

Asked by Tribune Business whether reearth might adopt the same legal tactics as the Save the Bays coalition, of which it is part, has employed over Clifton Bay, Ms Duncombe indicated that a Judicial Review action challenging the permits issued remained a possibility.

“Let’s put it this way: It’s not off the table. I certainly think it’s [Blackbeard’s Cay] a candidate for Judicial Review. Whether or not it comes under Save the Bays is another matter,” she said.

A court battle will the last thing that the Blackbeard’s Cay developers, headed by St Maarten businessman, Samir Andrawos, will want. They have invested heavily in redeveloping the island into an upscale ‘beach break’ development, targeted chiefly at Carnival Cruise Lines’ passengers, and any delay to their plans will cost time and money.

Such delays, though, are already being experienced. reearth, in a media statement sent out at the weekend, said it understood the Government was holding off on issuing the three Business Licences that Blackbeard’s Cay requires to operate - one each for the water park, souveniur and gift shop, and restaurant and bar.

Tribune Business last week confirmed separately, through sources close to the developers, that the Government indeeed appears to be delaying the grant of their Business Licence, possibly in response to pressure from reearth and others, and the issue is becoming a source of increasing frustration to them.

Especially since government teams have visited Blackbeard’s Cay twice in recent weeks to assess the project, with the developers producing all the permits and approvals they have received for inspection.

Tribune Business was told the developers felt the visits went “well”, that they had produced everything that was required and could now move forward. Despite numerous attempts yesterday, neither Khaalis Rolle, minister of state for investments, nor Obie Wilchcombe, minister of tourism, could be reached for comment on the Business Licence issue or the project as a whole.

The Blackbeard’s Cay project is thus now in danger of being trapped between the lack of planning process transparency by the Government; the pressure from reearth and others; and developers who believe they have already complied with all the Government has asked of them.

Despite meetings with two government ministers, Ms Duncombe said “no information of worth” on Blackbeard’s Cay had been supplied to her or reearth.

“We have heard zero from the Prime Minister,” Ms Duncombe told Tribune Business. “We’ve written to Minister V Alfred Gray, we’ve written to Richard Hardy at the Department of Lands and Surveys, we’ve written to Obie Wilchcombe - just about all of them who are involved.”

She added that reearth had met with Kenred Dorsett, minister of the environment, on the issue last Thursday, obtaining promises that he would “look into” the Blackbeard’s Cay situation.

Eight Cabinet ministers in total had been contacted, and Ms Duncombe said: “This is a bit of a runaway train. I can sort of understand the lack of response from the government agencies, as they have to clear everything they send out through the higher-ups, but I don’t understand the lack of communication.

“We need to get some kind of answer. It’s unacceptable after all this work not to have received any kind of communication from anyone. Totally unacceptable behaviour from the get-go, to have so many written questions and got nothing.”

In a June 14, 2013, letter to the Prime Minister, Ms Duncombe urged the Government to bring all work at Blackbeard’s Cay to a halt. This is despite the project having received National Economic Council (NEC) approval from the former Ingraham administration on November 22, 2011, and Town Planning Committee approval under the current government on November 22 last year.

As justification, Ms Duncombe cited the Government’s alleged failure to follow its own much-trumpeted Planning and Subdivisions Act.

In particular, she pointed out the requirement to hold public meetings for major developments and land use plan changes - something that seems not to have happened in the case of Blackbeard’s Cay.

“The Government is in breach of their own laws,” Ms Duncombe told Tribune Business. “How has this project got to this point without a Town Meeting? Why enact the law if you’re not going to enforce it? Are we going to have a free-for-all? Put your cards on the table from the get go.

“This is not 30 years ago. This is today. We should have a public consultation. If we are going to move forward as a democratic nation, we need processes in place to let the public know about any development before any agreement is made. Bring it to the people. Why put us on the backburner?

“We’re 40 years old. What does it mean in the grand scheme of things? Not much. The same thing has been going on for the last 40 years - the Government proceeding with developments without informing us, unless people are screaming for it. It’s not the way it should be. We can’t proceed with the decisions being made by people at the top, and we all suffer for it.”

In her letter to the Prime Minister, Ms Duncombe criticised Mr Gray, the minister of agriculture, fisheries and local government, for allegedly spending 13 minutes of his 15-minute meeting with reearth talking to someone else on the phone.

She wrote: “We have been trying to get to the bottom of this venture since February, and have been stonewalled by varying government ministries.

“Minister Gray kindly gave us a meeting on Monday, June 10, but then

spent 13 out of the 15 minutes allocated to us on the phone to someone else. He then told us that the dolphin import permits had been approved three weeks ago for the importation of two dolphins, and that we were meeting with the wrong person.

“Interesting that the director of fisheries, Michael Braynen, advised us on June 6 that there were no permits issued, and then on June 12 that Blackbeard’s Cay had requested permits for eight dolphins.”

And Ms Duncombe added: “We have also requested information from the Port Authority, the Bahamas Environmental, Science and Technology Commission and the Bahamas Investment Authority, and have been given none. I hope that you can understand our total frustration at the lack of transparency and cooperation from your Government. Is there something to hide?”

Urging the Government to place a moratorium on any new Bahamas-based dolphin attractions, Ms Duncombe said that - and the provision of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and other documents relevant to Blackbeard’s Cay’s approvals - was the best way “to settle this”.

And, calling for other Blackbeard’s Cay opponents to join with reearth, she told Tribune Business: “Bay Street needs to come out and collectively fight this issue. They’re never wanting to put their name out there; what’s to be afraid of?

“The reality is that we swim together or sink together, and this is the perfect situation where we could help one another.”

In her letter to the Prime Minister, Ms Duncombe also questioned why the Government had allowed Mr Andrawos to establish a business in the Bahamas, given that the tour provider/shore excursion industry was supposedly reserved for 100 per cent Bahamian ownership only.

“Our own Bahamian nationals are bogged down in bureaucracy, yet a foreigner can march into Nassau and set up business in a sector supposedly reserved for Bahamians, with very little hindrance. This is unacceptable,” she said.

Mr Andrawos, who works very closely with Carnival through his tour/excursion businesses in the rest of the Caribbean, was brought in by its Bahamian shareholders to turn the destination around.

Blackbeard’s Cay is located on Balmoral Island, a site opposite Sandals Royal Bahamian resort on New Providence’s north coast, and the Bahamian shareholders include Insurance Management chief, Cedric Saunders; Spanish Wells community leader, Abner Pinder; and well-known media owner, Charles Carter.

In response to earlier reearth claims, Mr Carter told Tribune Business it would be impossible to conduct a project of such magnitude and visibility without all the permits being in place.

“There’s no way that project can get going without them,” he said. “I’ve never been involved in anything illegal in my life, and don’t intend to start now.”

His position was backed by other contacts close to the $5 million project, who said it had already obtained its full occupancy certificate from the Ministry of Works plus the relevant dolphin encounter permits.

“They have permits for every single thing the have done,” one source close to Blackbeard’s Cay said. “I can confirm that everything is in order. They’ve got all the permits they need.”

The developers have pledged that the project will create 200 jobs and meet demands from the major cruise lines for Nassau to provide better, and a greater variety of, shore excursions and tours for their passengers.

Obie Wilchcombe, minister of tourism, previously said the project involved cruise passengers “staying on the island for two-three hours, and still shopping on Bay Street. It will cause for business opportunities to be extended beyond the island”.

He added: “We’re going to be monitoring it [Blackbeard’s Cay] very closely. The previous government approved it, and we’re just going to make sure it’s not going to cause any outcry on the one hand, and not restrict the movement of visitors to Bay Street on the other.”