By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister said if Potter’s Cay vendors want to rebuild their stalls in the water they would have to get permission from the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP).

Clay Sweeting, Minister of Agriculture, Marine Resources and Family Island Affairs, told Tribune Business that if vendors want to build their stalls in the water they would first have to get DEPP to do so, but under any other circumstance they are free to rebuild their stalls where they previously were before the fire destroyed them in April, 2021.

Mr Sweeting was responding to complaints made by Wendi Constantine, president of the Bahamas Dock and Allied Venues Vendors Association (BDAVVA), who told Tribune Business that Mr Sweeting was being “misled” by people who gave him improper information on how the destroyed stalls on Potter’s Cay Dock originally were.

Ms Constantine said: “We attended a meeting with Minister Clay Sweeting and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture. Whoever is the driving force behind the proposed plans has misled Minister Sweeting as to the layout of the rebuilding of the six fire victims’ stalls.”

She added: “The union was deliberately left out of the revised decisions and as a result what was proposed is not only unworkable but unacceptable. Except for what was originally discussed about the materials left at FYP Builders Mall by the previous administration, but beyond that, the entire meeting took us by surprise.”

“At no time in our meetings with the Minister did he indicate that we would have to go through the DEPP to be given permission to rebuild the decks needed to have the stalls the original size. When I mentioned this to Minister Sweeting that this information was brought to my attention, he admitted that he was aware that we had to go through this process and also admitted it could take anywhere from eight months to a year, and even then, there’s no guarantee approval.”

Mr Sweeting said: “The thing is they have to put the poles in the water and in order to put poles in the water you have to go to DEPP. The thing is we allocated for them the funding, which works out to about $16,000 per vendor and we met with them twice and provided them with two options.”

Mr Sweeting also said: “We’re sending the plans to the Ministry of Works (MOW) and we’re facilitating to expedite the process that they have been given approval from the MoW because you have to get their approval with the building plans.

He added: “The only thing that has to go to approval to DEPP for is if they want to put poles in the water. We’re providing them with the plans and we are facilitating them with getting the plans approved.”

The vendors have already gotten their letters for funding to rebuild their stalls as well, it was about $96,000 split between six of them, so we are helping them.”

Ms Constantine said, however: “This should have been mentioned to us in one of the meetings.”

She added: “Why would we need approval for something we already had?”

The DEPP Act came into effect in 2019, well after the vendors had built their original stalls. Since the Act is not retroactive, it meant that anything else moving forward that dealt with putting structures in the waters would amount to needing environmental approval.

She added: “Without the deck, the vendors would have to build on the sidewalk. What is so confusing is that the vendors had decks prior to the fire. We are not reinventing the wheel. So what about all the existing stalls with decks? The approval from DEPP the Minister is saying is to ensure that the integrity of the seabed is not compromised.”

She also noted that there are stalls out on Potter’s Cay dock with poles in the waters and she also said that the ministry is not bothering with them, but only these six “poor Black Bahamians” who only want to provide an “ocean view” for their patrons.