Abandoned Four Seasons Hotel Project Burns

Are Sue Springer & Robin Paterson Whistling Dixie?

"Royal Westmoreland, a Barbados landmark, is up for sale on the international market but the local tourism industry isn’t worried as this may result merely in a changing of hands. Prime luxury international real estate dealers and financial publications today began announcing that British owner, John Morphet, wants to part with the 750-acre west coast property for US$75 million. “It has been known for some time that there was a possibility of Royal Westmoreland being put up for sale. Now this is obviously what has happened,” Executive Vice-President of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association, Sue Springer, told Barbados TODAY. Morphet’s reported reason for giving up ownership of this property that annually attracts the likes of British Premier League football star, Wayne Rooney, and retired English cricket captain, Michael Vaughn, was that now in his 60s, he feels to be getting on too much in age that tires him after 96 visits to this island in 10 years. “I’m not getting any younger and it needs more time than I’d like to give it,” he said of the spread that includes 225 villas, a clubhouse, restaurant, spa, and a golf course. “It is an incredible real estate property and we look forward [and are] hoping that whoever purchases this whole estate will keep it in its current use and won’t change it,” Springer said. The Financial Times quoted Chief Executive of Sotheby’s International, Robin Paterson, as saying it was “very unusual to get an entire resort for sale” in the Barbados market. “This is the only resort of this scale, reputation and longevity in the southern Caribbean,” Paterson added. Springer does not see the announced sale having any negative impact on the image of Barbados tourism. “No, I don’t think so because things could be for sale at any time; it could be a hotel, it could be an estate like this, whatever. Things change hands the world over all the time. “It sends that message because the gentleman that owns it has accepted that he is at the crossroads and he wants to stay closer to home.” Morphet, who has a rags to riches story, having taken over a struggling UK farm from his parents, had last year indicated plans to purchase land from the Westmoreland estate to build an additional 200 properties. That planned investment was reportedly to the tune of US$500. These plans may not be derailed by a change in ownership because the Barbados real estate market is now being seen as an investment opportunity on the rise. The Sotheby’s chief executive reportedly told the Financial Times that the Barbados market is beginning to see an inflow of international professional property investors such as hotel operators. Springer agrees with that assessment, and believes the announced sale speaks well for the property market." Source: http://www.barbadostoday.bb/2015/03/14/for-sale

No Sugar In Sugar Hill

Click image to enlarge

"His £3million Algarve farm and his £6million plantation-style villa in Barbados are his pride and joy. He spends more time there than he does at the apartment that was raided yesterday, which he bought in 2008.
He shrugged recently that he spends 'a week here, a week there' in Britain and it has been revealed that he is not even a UK resident any longer as he spends so little time in the country. He is domiciled instead in Barbados, where he spends each winter."


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2725318/I-ll-bachelor-boy-s-way-I-ll-stay-His-bandmate-s-wife-Sue-Barker-rumours-sexuality-Sir-Cliff-Richard-s-love-life-apparent-lack-thereof.html#ixzz3AcQa8teE
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Techno Jetty

Sign petition to have jetty repaired here -http://j.mp/StownJet

Pared Down Plans For Royal Westmoreland's Expansion Inching Forward ...Maybe?

"Efforts are on to salvage a $150 million luxury golf, residential and hotel project which has been waiting in the wings for more than three years.

Barbados TODAY has learnt that high-level talks involving senior members of the Freundel Stuart Administration and Royal Westmoreland are underway in an attempt to get that St. James luxury development’s expansion onto the nearby Lancaster Plantation property it owns underway.

Discussions have already been held with Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler, and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Senator Darcy Boyce is chairing a working group on the matter.

The major sticking point continues to be the granting of approval for the construction of a $4.4 million reservoir Royal Westmoreland officials said was necessary for the 18 hole championship golf course, hotel and other residences.

These developments were confirmed today by the Royal Westmoreland Construction Director, Ian Putley, who was cautiously optimistic about the likelihood a positive outcome within the coming months.

“We are currently in discussion with a working group led by Senator Darcy Boyce who is trying to get the confirmation of compliance with Town & Country Development Planning conditions letter,” the official told Barbados TODAY..."

Read more: Barbados Today

Holetown Waterfront Improvement Project

"... work on the Holetown Waterfront Improvement Project is progressing smoothly.

The project began this year following the completion of another Coastal Risk Assessment Management Programme at Heron Bay, which began last October to run for six weeks.

That section of the programme focussed on coastal enhancement, while addressing sea level rise, coastal erosion, climate change, as well as addressing storm surge and winter swells. It saw the construction of a series of groynes and elements of offshore work being done there.

Now, the Coastal Zone Management Unit has focused its attention on Holetown to stabilise the shoreline and creating a hazard resilient area that will involve the construction of a boardwalk as well as other offshore and shoreline features.

A source said the work there was on schedule and going great, and there was evidence today of workmen removing boulders from the much eroded Holetown beach where once existed one of the most attractive beaches on the west coast.

Once the project is completed, there should be an expanse of beach comparable to what would have existed in the 1980s, along with much needed and attractive improvements."

Source: Barbados Today

More Bad Press For The West Coast

"Something disturbing is happening on Barbados – the Caribbean experience is being drowned in a tsunami of greed and gravel. With tax dodgers, celebrities, footballers and bloated businessmen all flocking to the island prices have soared. Even my rich friend Lady Carol Parsons complains.

Once I used to think to myself “oh just relax and put it on the plastic, after all you are on holiday”. I do mean literally once. That occasion was when a meal for 5 at the Lonestar came to £650 and I was paying. After that I was more careful. If someone said that Villa Rosa or Chin Chin were the latest places to eat, I would be sure to avoid them.

The turning point came about 10 years ago when property started to boom, and especially on the West Coast around Holetown, originally developed by the likes of the Guinness and Cunard families. This was The Place To Be. Now it is jam packed with mansions from end to end. The latest is One Sandy Lane, a sort of beachside British Museum opposite the famous Sandy Lane golf course and Barbados’s answer to One Hyde Park, that Qatari monstrosity near Harrods in London..."

Read more: Barbados: Don’t Bother, Frankly

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West Coast Demonized In Billionaire Heiress Death

"It is just an eight-hour direct flight from London Gatwick and once you arrive you are never more than 10 minutes’ stroll from a palm-dappled shore. Barbados is known as the Switzerland of the Caribbean for the high number of wealthy home owners, and its residents spend their days swimming, lounging on white sand beaches, lunching and golfing at the famous Sandy Lane Hotel — before playing long into the night. The drink of choice is, of course, rum, and the atmosphere, like the heat, intense, heady.

It is a life that the late Eva Rausing and her husband Hans knew well. The tragic couple split their time between the capital and Barbados where they owned an 11-bedroom beachfront mansion worth £15 million. Set on a private estate near Sandy Lane — said to be the Rausings’ spiritual home — Greensleeves comes with an oriental water garden and koi-filled lily ponds.

But for Hans and Eva, their sun-drenched second home in Barbados may have held a dangerous appeal. For all the island’s well-heeled affluence, it is also reportedly a place of hedonistic debauchery and widely available drugs..."

Read more - "Dark side of paradise... the death of Eva Rausing puts the spotlight on Barbados"

West Coast Unprepared And Among Most Tsunami Vulnerable In Barbados

"While one coastal expert rated the island's tsunami readiness at "six out of ten", the head of disaster management disclosed there were "significant gaps" in the mechanism.

Deputy Director of the Coastal Zone Management Unit, Dr. Lorna Inniss gave preparedness for a tsunami a grade of six out of ten today in an interview with Barbados TODAY, but said preparations for the devastating natural disaster were continuing in earnest.

She noted that in another week there would be a simulation exercise involving disaster preparedness agencies and other stakeholders tracking such an exercise from the time the warning is received until after impact.

Director of the Department of Emergency Management Judy Thomas disclosed there was a significant "gap" in readiness -- a mass notification system to warn Barbadians of impending danger, remained unresolved.

She noted that the country still had "a long way to go in terms of putting down the mass notification warning mechanisms because we want to use the cellular networks and the putting down of sirens or the reactivation of the police siren system to give public warnings", she said

"Those are the last things that we have to do to ensure that we have our mass notification system, but the work has started and the work is ongoing. We have not abandoned the thought of getting our country aware of the tsunamis and what they can do, and receiving the warnings out of the Pacific and then having those warnings given to the Barbadian community."

Thomas said a major challenge was that Barbados no longer had a working national siren system, and beyond that there was no money "for a mass siren system at this stage".

And as hoteliers go about putting their disaster mitigation plans in place, there is a call from one the key spokespersons for Barbados' vital tourism sector to have a greater communication system and a proper education programme.

Executive Vice-President of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association, Sue Springer, said there should be a tsunami plan in place. "If there is a plan that's put in place, and with everything that's happening all around us, this level of expenditure to communicate that plan must take priority. We've had a couple of earthquakes tossed around us; we're watching it all over. Who says that we're sitting here so privileged?

"Education and communication must happen so that when the [warning] siren goes, we know and we tell everybody get out of wherever you are and head for the hills and not motorised either cause it will make no difference," she said.

Springer noted that 90 per cent of the hospitality sector was on the coastlines and a storm surge would be devastating to the sector.

That apart, the Ministry of Education was forging ahead with its evacuation plans, said Acting Chief Education officer Laurie King, in a separate interview today. He said that the Ministry was not waiting for an impending disaster to implement an evacuation plan and had carried out, and will continue to do, drills at schools situated along the coastlines and those in low lying areas.

There were also evacuation routes planned to take people to higher ground.

The rebuilding process could be easier for some than others, said President of the General Insurance Association of Barbados, Michael Holder. He explained that once policy holders had the necessary insurance in place, it should not present a problem.

He noted that normally where there was hurricane and earthquake coverage, there was also coverage for tsunamis.

But several Barbadians would be caught off-guard should a tsunami roll in. Some of the most vulnerable areas across the nation still have no real evacuation plans and no idea of what should be done in the event of such a natural disaster. Barbados TODAY paid a visit to a number of these coastal communities including Six Men's, St. Peter, Holetown, St. James, Half Moon Fort, St. Lucy and the message was the same neighbourhood after neighbourhood - no one was ready, no one was prepared.

Some blamed a failure on the part of the relevant authorities to adequately educate the public despite the launch of a public education and awareness week for the Tsunami And Coastal Hazards Warning System Project in March, last year. Others felt there was little or nothing they could do to secure themselves or their families even if armed with the necessary information."

Source: "Significant gaps remain in the island's readiness for a tsunami"

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They Built Their Fancy Golf & Country Club Under A Rubbish Dump - Now Sandy Lane Is Complaining About The Smell. Well, Duh!

“Just below the communities of Arch Hall
and Bennetts in St. Thomas, the Sandy Lane
Country Club today added its voice to the
concerns about the recent worsening of the stench from
the Mangrove Pond Landfill.

Golf and country club manager, Elvis Medford told
Barbados TODAY this afternoon that they too have
been concerned by what they believe is an intensification of
the stench of garbage from the dump.

“Basically what we find is that there are some days when
the smell from the dump is a lot stronger, like for example
when there is a heavy turn over of garbage at the landfill.
We are directly down wind and being directly down wind
the smell is very strong. We have a restaurant and it can be
very annoying at time when it is full of people.”

The manager explained that they have had to employ
their people skills in explaining to their customers, some
of whom are very wealthy visitors, about the smells they
encounter while lunching there.

“It is never easy having to explain the smell from day
to day. What we try to do is, see what we can do to
explain the smell to them. So we try to use more pleasant
fragrances in cleaning and mopping some areas. We put
some sweet smelling stuff in the actual water so it takes
away some of the foul odor that comes from the dump,”
said Medford, adding that they have also seen an increase in
flies at the restaurant as well.

He noted though that he could not lay the blame for the
flies totally at the foot of the dump, but that they at the
club have had to look at their own practices and to boost
what they were doing in terms of keeping their surfaces
clean.

“We can’t blame it all on the landfill because some of it
is also pretty much your own hygiene ... if you have dirty
surfaces they will tend to attract more flies. So we have to
be on top of that, and naturally in the rainy time you see
much more flies around. As a result we have to clean much
more often.”

Similar to the residents, the manager said Sandy Lane’s
management has made its position and challenges with
regard to the smell known to the managers of the dump,
the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA). He acknowledged
that the residents in neighbouring communities would feel
the effects of the dump, which he believes is getting bigger.

“It is not just a problem for us but the Arch Hall
community and in some cases the smell itself is experienced
much further down wind and when you look at it, the
landfill has actually grown taller.

“It is the first time in my experience that I have seen
such. It is just getting taller and taller, so obviously it is
getting bigger. Then sometimes you get the odd fires and
that is not a good experience either. So there is heavy
smoke and sometimes it can burn for days. So I am sure
that there are residents, some of whom are asthmatics or
whatever the case may be, who would have concerns that
they would have expressed and made known.”

Among the other challenges, he said, was that the dump
trucks which use the Bennetts Road as a route to the
landfill, sometimes left rubbish behind in the roads, as some
of them travel at terrific speeds. He said they have had to
have the grounds staff clearing the road of refuse that fell
from some of the trucks. According to Medford, it was in
their interest not to leave it on the road, which runs
between the golf course and is the direct route to the
country club where customers come to eat.

Additionally, he said, another growing concern was that
of seepage and “what happens when it goes into the water
course [as] that too could have some bearing on our product.””

Source: Barbados Today 080910 p.30

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Something The Government Of Barbados Should Think About For What's Left Of The West Coast

"After years of welcoming well-heeled tourists from around the world with open arms, one of Tuscany's smartest, most discreet beach resorts is in revolt against outsiders, wealthy or not.

Forte dei Marmi – the traditional summer retreat for Italian captains of industry, writers and film stars – is changing the law to try to stop locals fleeing because of house prices driven out of control by incoming Russian millionaires. The town's combative mayor, Umberto Buratti, is reserving space next to luxury villas with sea views for new homes that will only be sold to locally-born buyers or long-term residents. Other Italian resorts with similar problems will monitor the experiment with interest.

"We want to safeguard the character of the town instead of seeing it turn into a place with no ties, as anonymous as a motorway service station," Buratti said.

"Not everyone here is rich or Russian," added local councillor Michele Molino. "You look at the designer shops round here and we could be in London."

Despite the economic crisis that has kept some smart Muscovites at home, local estate agents expect up to 500 Russian families to descend this summer, following in the footsteps of super-rich visitors such as Roman Abramovich and splashing out up to €100,000 at a time to rent villas for the season – albeit a snip compared with the €20m reportedly paid out to buy the biggest villas nestling behind bougainvilleas between the broad beaches and Apuan Alps.

"Five million is the norm now, but if you go just a few miles inland prices drop by two thirds, which is where the locals have disappeared to," said a local estate agent, Umberto Giannecchini..."

Read more:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/04/italian-resort-forte-dei-marmi-tourists

West Coast Becoming Inner-City Ghetto

"There has been an uptick in drug activity here on the west coast recently including a few high-profile arrests.  So I have been more cautious going outside after dark. I was sitting out on my deck late the other night cruising the Internet when I heard what sounded like gun shots coming from what I thought was either Mullins or Gibbses beaches. Needless to say I grabbed my computer, yanked the plug out by the flex and made a bee line for my bedroom. Yesterday I discovered in The Nation newspaper that the incident actually occurred a little further south at Thunder Bay..."

Click here to join the discussion on our forum.

Construction On Banyan Tree/Black Bess Golf & Villa Project Causing Local Headache

"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.

Barbados TravelAdvisor • View topic - Trouble On First Street

 

Construction proceeding on the Holetown Boarwalk as seen from The Beach House

(click image to enlarge)

The stresses and strains of the rapidly changing heart of the West Coast - Holetown - are beginning to show.  Traffic has become a nightmare in the area, and although construction has slowed to a crawl there seems to be little hope for residents and visitors in the area being able to breathe free any time soon.  Some have described entering the town from the south and passing the construction fences stretching all the way from Beachlands to the old Chefette Restaurant with no construction going on behind them as visiting a prison camp.  Now this: Barbados TravelAdvisor • View topic - Trouble On First Street

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No Gas My ...

West Coast gas blues
Published on: 10/22/08.

by Barry Alleyne

Barbados' upscale West Coast had a hard time dealing with hungry visitors yesterday.
A number of eateries lost hundreds of potential customers, as a lack of natural gas along what is called the "gold strip" prevented a number of hotels and restaurants from serving hot meals.
Most businesses which offered food were adversely affected, with some of them forced to make the tough decision of not opening for lunch, at all, yesterday. Some were forced to open from after 1 p.m. in an effort to recoup losses.
Yesterday's lack of natural gas, provided by the National Petroleum Corporation (NPC) through its underground pipeline, affected businesses from Prospect, St James, to Mullins, St Peter.
General Manager of the NPC, James Browne, explained that the problems were caused when flooding forced huge rocks into the road at the Lazaretto,
Black Rock, last week, and damaged their lines in the process.

Badly damaged

"Our pipeline was badly damaged at the Lazaretto, but we put a technical team on the job as quickly as we could," Browne told the MIDWEEK NATION. "When the road collapsed, it almost destroyed our pipeline, too. We had to repair a portion which led directly down the West Coast, and we were able to have service resumed just after 12 noon."
The manager said the job was still incomplete, however, since their repaired line was now propped in the open, and cannot be placed underground again, until the road is completely repaired by the Ministry of Public Works.
Businesses affected yesterday included The Beach House, Tides Restaurant, Tamarind Cove Hotel, and the Jus Grillin Restaurant.
Operations Manager at Tides, Judy Packer, said the service of the NPC was usually first-class, but that yesterday's lack of gas cost them dearly.
"We had to make a decision because we didn't have any gas, and we decided to close for lunch. This business is always unpredictable, especially at this stage of the season, but I know it affected us somehow because we weren't able to serve any lunches today," Packer said.
The Beach House, smack in the middle of the tourist district of Holetown, St James, also had their profits cut yesterday. "It affected us substantially," operations manager John Mark-Davis said. "We don't fry anything. We grill all our food, which means we depend only on natural gas, so we had a hard time. We weren't able to start business until after 1 p.m. today. We actually lost quite a bit of business" Mark-Davis added.
General Manager of the The Beach House, Howard Palmer said most of his lunch guests turned away, but a few still decided to have salads for a meal, instead of cooked food. "There's really nothing we could do about it. These things happen in business, and you have no control over it when it does happen."
At Tamarind Cove, Deputy General Manager, Sandra Parris said they were affected, but not as much as other businesses, since one of their two restaurants actually use Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) bottles.
In First Street, Holetown, Executive Chef of the The Mews Restaurant, Nicholas King was thankful the service had been restored just before 2 p.m. allowing his staff to prepare dinner.

barryalleyne@nationnews.com

http://www.nationnews.com/308892785642826.php

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Better Late Than Never: Sandy Lane gets its own Crop Over

"SANDY LANE'S MARIO LINSKEE ALLEYNE proved too hot to handle with a performance worthy of the Party Monarch crown, when the five-diamond resort hosted its all-inclusive Crop-Over Lime at the Old Nine Clubhouse for its coaches and champions (management and staff) last weekend...."

Click here for NationNews.com article.

Why Yet Another Barbados Travel Forum/Blog

This post has been moved to the new Barbados TravelAdvisor Blog.