By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Opponents of an Adelaide-based swimming pigs attraction are challenging why Town Planning is “entertaining” its application when it has already issued a “cease and desist” order for it to close.

Sam Duncombe, president of the reEarth environmental group, whose property sits immediately next door to Beyond Da Village Pig Experience, told Tribune Business that it “still boggles my mind” how this and a similar attraction nearby - Da Pig Beach - were still operating despite both lacking the necessary Town Planning approvals.

Speaking after a virtual Town Planning meeting on Thursday night, which discussed the application by Beyond Da Village and its operator, Charles Johnson, to construct and operate a bar and grill at the site, Mrs Duncombe blasted: “Why is Town Planning even entertaining him right now......

“I’m really just struggling to understand how they’ve been operating without the proper permits to do so. They’ve not even been given a slap on the wrist. It’s like we’ll overlook that and go forward. I get that the regulatory bodies are overworked, they have a lot on their plate, but these particular facilities, they have a lot of documentation in terms of what’s been going on.

“I’ve been in touch with Town Planning since June last year. Nobody can say, not one, what is happening. It boggles my mind. I know they’ve issued the cease and desist order, but who’s going to enforce it? Who’s calling the police?”

Tribune Business has seen a copy of Town Planning’s cease and desist order, which was issued to Mr Johnson on Friday, January 21, 2022 at 11.05am. The order, which states that the business was supposed to “cease and desist” from 2pm that day, was signed by inspector/enforcement officer Clinton Forbes.

It was issued on the basis that Mr Johnson had “commenced operation of a business activity without approval” from the Ministry of Works, Building Control, Department of Environmental Health and Department of Physical Planning. 

Mr Johnson, when contacted by Tribune Business on the cease and desist order, confirmed one had been issued but said Town Planning had subsequently admitted to him it had erred in doing so.

He pointed to the fact that it was issued in the name of Beyond Da Village Tours, another business he operates, but not the name of the company that was applying for the bar and grill approval.

“The particular business that was applying was not operating when they came,” Mr Johnson argued. “I was not supposed to be issued with a cease and desist order. I have these relevant approvals from the particular agencies they asked for, which I presented to them.”

He cited a “police letter”, as well as other permits from the Department of Environmental Health and other agencies. “I didn’t have the Town Planning approval, which I was clearly working on, which was pending, and which is why the person indicated the cease and desist was not really supposed to be issued.

“I’m allowing access to the beach, not operating a bar and grill. I’m not operating the business they said should cease and desist. This particular ‘stop’ order should not have been issued for Beyond Da Village Tours. The bar is under a different company’s name, which has applied for permission.”

Mr Johnson argued that it was difficult to make Adelaide Village, which he described as “an historical site”, fully residential when the area needed “more tourists”. He added, though, that he was “committed to working with the residents”, and especially those living on Beach Drive where his and the other swimming pigs attraction is located, on “whatever restrictions they want”.

“I’m very open to keeping that area’s off-the-path type feel, and prevent any commercialisation of that area,” Mr Johnson said, “getting away from the hustle and bustle of Nassau. Anything I can do to preserve the peace and quiet for residents, I’m very open to that.”

Mrs Duncombe, meanwhile, said Town Planning had also informed her that it had issued a cease and desist order to the other swimming pigs attraction, Da Pig Beach, located four lots east of Mr Johnson, on the same day - January 21, 2022.

“They wouldn’t show it to me,” she said. “Charles Zonicle [head of physical planning] told me they’d issued it. Mr Forbes told me it was signed by Ms Smith for Da Pig Beach. However, Paul Neely, Da Pig Beach’s landlord, told Tribune Business he was unaware of any such order being issued. “Not as far as I know,” he said. “Leslie Vanderpool told me that, but I don’t know anything about that.”

Besides Town Planning approvals, or the lack thereof, the other major issue surrounding the Adelaide swimming pigs attractions is that they are located in an area that is zoned as ‘Low Density Residential 1’. This means commercial activity is not supposed to be happening here, and Mr Johnson conceded: “It’s all about determining how the area is to be zoned going forward.”

Mrs Duncombe, though, added: “It still boggles my mind how both these operations have been in business, one since April last year and the other since June, without proper approvals and are still operating without being shut down. Are we a country of laws, or is it a free for all?

“Why do some of us obey the law and, for others that don’t, there’s no consequences for them. I’m trying to understand that. There were a number of people at the meeting who had concerns with the fact he has been served a cease and desist order and continues to operate.”

The controversy is also threatening to divide the community, and pit the mostly Bahamian homeowners of Beach Drive against other Adelaide residents who are supportive of the tourists, economic opportunities and jobs they have brought to the area.

Dexter Rahming, Adelaide’s crime watch president, told the Town Planning meeting: “I’m in favour of the pig beach. In front of me I have a petition of the residents in Adelaide, and this is 175 persons.

“I’m also a resident of Beach Drive, and a lot of the information that my neighbour stated was not true. I have taken the opportunity to come here and sit and eat, and there is absolutely no noise. The noise is actually coming from my neighbour who has all of those ten dogs.”

This petition was compared to the 30-strong one signed in opposition to the swimming pigs attractions, but Keenan Johnson, the Town Planning Committee chair, asked for proof of how many of the 175 signatories actually live in Adelaide.

Other residents of Beach Drive, which sits on the Adelaide Village shoreline, have bitterly complained that the surge in tourist-related traffic congestion as well as noise and other irritants was “really out of hand” due to the presence of the two “swimming with the pigs” operations.

These include Ms Vanderpool, head of the Bahamas International Film Festival, as well as Dr Merceline Dahl-Regis, who has headed the Government’s COVID-19 response. Describing Mr Johnson’s presentations as containing “inconsistencies”, she said: “I can show you pictures of numerous GT style buses on-premises.

“This activity started with a pig pen adjacent to my property, and I spoke with my neighbour and asked them to please move the animals because I was getting the odors into my bedroom and flowers.”

Mr Johnson, in response, said he “always” keeps his animals in safe, and argued that stray and unleashed dogs are responsible for more mess than his pigs. “My animals are vet checked by Dr Basil Sands and Happy Pets in Old Fort Bay, which they don’t roam. They are trained and they are wormed out every month,” he added.

Town Planning is due to discuss the Beyond Da Village application and the situation in Adelaide at its meeting tomorrow.