The long-running saga of the future of Red Spot beach in George Town, which is currently used as a fish market, has been delayed yet again due to confusion over the application documents.
Businessman Chris Johnson owns the site on Seafarers Way North and wants to turn the small sandy bay into a park for locals and cruise ship tourists.
He originally applied for permission to build stairs and a ramp to allow for easier public access to the beach last summer, but the application had been adjourned three times since then.
As well as the steps and the ramp, the plans also included adding benches and planters, and removing an illegally poured slab of concrete.
If approved, the works are likely to lead to workers at the fish market having to move from the site – a situation they have been battling against for several years.
The most recent adjournment in July had been granted to give the Public Lands Commission the opportunity, if it so wished, to apply for public prescriptive rights over the land.
But in its submission to the planning board, the commission said that “it had no further issue with the application” as it did not appear to prevent the public from accessing the beach and using the land for fishing, bathing and recreation.
Another adjournment
Chris’s son Robert Johnson, of Johnson Design and Architecture, attended the Central Planning Authority meeting on 6 Nov., and his lawyer told the meeting that he hoped approval would be granted for the application, following the Public Lands Commission’s response.
However, it was pointed out by Central Planning Authority members that the documents submitted as part of the application included tents used by fishermen to prepare and sell fish, which was not part of the application. If the plans as they stood were approved, said the committee, then the fishermen’s tents would also have been approved.
The Johnsons were therefore told to resubmit the plans to only include items in their application, and the case was adjourned for a fourth time.
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Regarding the fish market, as I understand it the “workers” are not fishermen, but hired to sell fish sourced from commercial fishing boats. Why not relocate them to the local market near the airport?.Mr Johnson’s plans are an excellent idea which he will be funding for the benefit of not necessarily the public, but for the cruise ship passengers many of whom can be seen wading in the sea in this area. This will be free of access (unlike an adjoining area) and the Public Lands Commission has endorsed it. Move the “fish market” to a location that has public parking, and open up the beach for the benefit of our visitors. It is time for the Planning Board stop stalling this issue and accept a solution where everyone is a winner.
With regard to Hurleys, when the original supermarket was open it was a boon to everyone living in this area and very much appreciated. Since then the local population has increased considerably with new developments locally and the new supermarket will be even more popular. This will reduce traffic otherwise having to add to the congestion in George Town in visiting existing supermarkets. Flooding was never a problem previously. As for “noise pollution” that is poppycock, as of now it’s pollution, that exists on the old site which has the appearance of a dump, some 20 wrecked cars, more than a dozen old containers, several old garbage hoppers (one overfilled with garbage) and piles of sundry dumped items. One item needs special mention, immediately adjacent to the Home Gas location there are piles of rusted gas containers, some of commercial size which have clearly been lying there for many years (separated from Home Gas by their boundary fence), as have a lot of the other items mentioned. What has the Dept of EnvironmentaL Health done about this eyesore!.
All these problems will be solved if Hurley’s are permitted to build their new store. Planning have held their application since Dec 2021 and what are they doing about it?, “the application has just been adjourned for a future date”!.
Why is it that so many projects involving Govt with their vast army of employees take for ever to complete?.
I make these comments as a local resident of some 52 years residing less than half a mile from the “eyesore”.