By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

INTERNATIONAL interest in the future of Clifton Bay is rising as Save the Bays intends to file legal action against the government today, seeking judicial review of its public consultation process over Peter Nygard’s proposed expansion plans for Simms Point/Nygard Cay.

The legal action follows the government’s June 18 announcement that a 21-day public consultation period on the fashion mogul’s applications for his proposed expansion plans will take place.

The environmental group insists the announcement has been futile because the government has not disclosed enough information about the applications to enable residents to respond in a

relevant manner. 

Over the weekend, reputed international newspapers and magazines such as the UK’s The Guardian and Germany’s Der Spiegel published stories about the impending legal battle, portraying the issue as a fight among environmentalists, the Bahamas government and Mr Nygard over a scenic area that has featured prominently in several major films, including a James Bond movie.

On Saturday The Guardian wrote: “They provided the stunning setting for a Bond and a Jaws film, and the 1960s Flipper TV series about a super-intelligent bottlenose dolphin. But today the beaches and azure waters of Clifton Bay in the Bahamas are at the centre of a real-life drama that would surely compete with anything Hollywood could invent. The sprawling development of the peninsular home of the billionaire fashion tycoon Peter Nygard and his plans to build a stem cell research centre there, not least due to the 71-year-old’s interest in keeping ever youthful, are said by a campaign group to be threatening an environmental calamity on one of the world’s most beautiful coastlines.”

The consultation period on Mr Nygard’s applications is set to end on Wednesday.

Fred Smith, Save the Bay’s attorney, told The Tribune yesterday: “I am thrilled that the world at least sees value in the Bahamas. It is ironic that our own politicians have such little regard for the Bahamas that they continue to sacrifice our environment at the altar of the almighty foreign dollar. The government promised to reply to our request for further information (on Nygard’s plans) by Friday of last week.

“In true form, as has happened in Guana Cay, Blackbeard’s Cay, Wilson City Power Plant and the first Nygard case, the government has remained secretive. As a result, Save the Bays has no alternative but to launch a new judicial review to challenge this flawed and secretive, hypocritical consultation process. That case will be issued to try and prevent decisions being made without giving Save the Bays an opportunity to participate in a meaningful and sensible way.”

He added: “Crown land is for the benefit of the Bahamas, not for people like Peter Nygard. In Guana Cay, the government gave crown land away to foreigners for $1 an acre and they are reselling it at $5 million dollars a parcel. In addition, Bahamians are squeezed in the centre of Guana Cay with no room for the settlement to expand with two foreign projects taking up all the rest of the Crown land; so too at Clifton where the government wants to stop public access along the north side of Simms Point and give $35 million of crown land beach to Nygard.

Referencing a recently disclosed 1992 letter from Mr Nygard to Prime Minister Perry Christie, who was then the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Smith said: “Crown land is not there to be given away for political favours and Nygard thinks the Prime Minister owes him as was his claim in the 1992 letter. This is exactly the kind of stuff that the US State Department was talking about in its 2014 investment report, corruption being embedded in the body politic.”

A town meeting on the issue is scheduled for 7.30 tonight at the BCPOU Hall on Farrington Road and Joseph Darville, Save The Bay’s director of education is urging all Bahamians to attend. “There are so many issues of public importance – from industrial pollution to unregulated development – going on at Clifton,” he said. “The future of this unique cultural and environmental treasure should matter not just to New Providence residents, but every citizen of the Bahamas.”