The Hon Marcella Liburd, parliamentary representative for constituency number 2, is weighing in on the issue of access to public beaches. Liburd, on Wednesday’s edition of Freedom Fm’s Issues, explained that the land at South Friars Bay was never owned by the government of St. Kitts and Nevis.
“The land was never developed by the Kuwaiti family. A son of the family placed the land on the market for sale. Within the last year, a company out of the United States bought the land from the Kuwaiti family.”
There has been much discussion about this land in the public domain recently, as beach bar owners in the area had recently had their leases abruptly terminated and given 30 day to cease operations.
Liburd contends that the Government of National Unity led by Prime Minister the Hon. Timothy Harris, had information that a globally known hotel chain had applied for concessions with the intention of developing the land.
“The local vendors in their lease arrangements have been given 30 days to vacate the property. What is extremely important is that since the US company bought the land, Dr. Harris has been looking at an application to develop the land for a hotel. Timothy Harris and his Team Unity Government have approved the application for the development of the land. Harris has approved building permits and fiscal concessions within the last six months or more,”
During his monthly press conference on Thursday 1st February, 2018, Prime Minister Harris advised that his cabinet had met with the affected bar opperators.
He indicated that the government had made the desicion to iniciate dialogue with the principals of the development in an effort to facilitate some sort of resolution.
However, On Wednesday, Mp Liburd questioned the motive behind meeting with the bar owners.
“At no point in time during the last six months or more, did Dr. Harris find the time to go to the local bar owners and inform them of the plans and discuss with them their removal. Dr. Harris knew all along as he has been giving permits, giving concessions and looking at the applications for the development. But Harris did not call in the bar owners to discuss alternative arrangements until the bar owners received letters to quit and there was a public uproar. How caring is that, when Dr. Harris knew well in advance that they were going to get letters to quit as for months he has been meeting with the developers?”
Liburd further charged that the government has been less than transparent in regard to the sale of land associated with the land for death swap.
She issued a direct call to Dr Harris to tell the people who the land was sold to.