Once again, the issue of beach access is stirring up controversy in our community, as it seems to do on an almost annual basis.
This time, the same tourist family that was booted off the Westin Casuarina Resort beach last August has been embarrassingly expelled by police again.
The reason behind this particular family finding itself in the same situation, at the same beach, with the same problem makes for an interesting discussion.
However, that discussion totally misses the point.
The issue that really needs to be addressed is what rights do citizens, residents and visitors of this country have on our beaches.
There are laws in place that protect the public’s right to traverse all of Cayman’s shorelines, but the question of how far inland that right goes seems to be open to interpretation.
The Westin believes it can protect all the land inwards from the mean high water mark, which is the way the law is written.
The Westin paid millions of dollars for the property and to build the hotel. It believes the guests of the resort, who also pay a lot of money to stay there, deserve the right to use an un-crowded beach on what they believe is private property.
The real problem is the mean high water mark is an imaginary line that is different from place to place along the shore and could change over the course of the year with every storm that passes.
Some believe setbacks should start at the line of natural vegetation, but as Minister of Planning Kurt Tibbetts noted last week, there is virtually no natural vegetation left on some sections of Cayman’s shoreline because of development, which means such a setback would be just as imaginary as the mean high water mark.
What is needed is a law that offers a definitive and practical way of measuring the shoreline area which is for public use.
Without such a law, this issue of beach access will continue to create controversy, irking residents, visitors and property-owners alike.
With all of the other post-Hurricane Ivan challenges facing Cayman’s tourism industry, this is no time to be upsetting visitors because of an ambiguous law.
The Government has said it is looking into the matter of beach access, and we hope the people of this country are given a resolution to this long-standing issue in the very near future.
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