Waiting to use the restroom is never fun, but for visitors to the East End beach off Sea View Road, hanging on for more than 14 months might seem a little excessive.
A $250,000 application by the Public Works Department for a public toilet block, two cabanas, a parking lot and a buffer wall, which was first filed in January 2024, has been adjourned for the second time by the Central Planning Authority.
Minutes of the CPA’s meeting on 19 Feb. 2025 show that the board decided to refer the application to the National Conservation Council to gauge any “potential adverse effects” to the local environment, as well as request an updated high water mark survey and a revised site plan.
Plans filed last January
Plans for a 400-square-foot restroom block, two 98-square-foot cabanas, seven parking places and a 4-foot wall were initially adjourned at the CPA meeting in January last year, with Public Works being asked to file a new high water mark survey and to provide a written response to the issue of potential adverse effects.
The department filed the updated high water mark survey in May 2024, and the application had been, according to CPA minutes, “tentatively scheduled” for the meeting on 18 Dec. 2024.
However, because the response to the issue of the adverse effects had not been submitted by the date of the December meeting, the application was pushed back to the February 2025 hearing. By then, the updated high water mark survey was more than nine months old, so another new one will now have to be provided.
Impact on the environment
In its response to the questions over adverse effects which has now been submitted, Public Works said that it has tried to minimise the impact on the environment by reducing the original size of the restroom block and decreasing the number of cabanas from four to two, installing turtle-friendly lighting throughout and ensuring that all proposed development is outside the required setback from the ocean.
The plans are now being scrutinised by the National Conservation Council before they can go back before the CPA.
Related Videos
The Govt. all talk and sloooooo action. Like the sand on SMB. And the closed beach out by Rum point.