"CONSTRUCTION ON THE SITE of the $600 million Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts Ltd at Black Bess, St Peter, has taken a toll on 82-year-old Gellispie Springer.
Springer, who lives below the site at Upper Rock Dundo, St James, said her life has been disrupted by falling boulders and mould, loud noises from bulldozers and now a mass of water.
Whenever it rains, water gushes down the cliff above her and floods around her house and the road.
"If you see how the water rush down from there and flood my whole yard; I had to say Lord have mercy!" the elderly woman cried as she pointed to the cliff which is about 50 to 60 feet high..."
Click here for entire NationNews.com article.
Who knew that this project was restarted? Last we heard this project was shuttered and/or abandoned because of the recession. Be that as it may, the headache it is causing this old lady is another episode in a long string of problems construction on luxury tourism developments on or near the west coast have caused for locals and the environment. Some people in the area still blame a massive flood and rushing water which swept through the village of Weston, St. James several years ago washing one chattel house out to sea and drowning its occupant in the process, on construction related issues at the Royal Westmoreland golf and villa project. There has been no end of headaches for locals with the Apes Hill/Waterhall project involving everything from dry water taps to pushing people off lands. And, of course, the nightmare created in Road View/Mullins by the St. Peter's Bay condo project has been well documented on the Mullins Bay Blog. In all of these and other cases Government has stood aside with its arms folded and mouth shut - it too a victim and sometimes facilitator of the greed that currently grips Barbados by the throat.
Update:
ReplyDeleteAs was our suspicion yesterday, there is nothing going on at Black Bess on the Banyan Tree golf and villa project. The NationNews.com is today reporting the following:
"The $600 million joint venture project between Asian international hotel chain Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts and local company Bacassa Developments Ltd has apparently hit a snag.
The Black Bess, St Peter resort, along with the Four Seasons resort in Black Rock, St Michael, on hold for several months now, were billed as major projects that would add value to Barbados' tourism product.
The Banyan project is on a 300-acre site south of the Black Bess Quarry. It was planned to include 80 condominiums and 120 private villas as well as an 18-hole championship golf course and an ultramodern spa.
Construction began in 2005 and was expected to be completed by 2008, but apart from hundreds of thousands of dollars in excavation work on the massive site, no other physical development has taken place..."
Click here for entire NationNews.com article.