The Bermuda Environmental and Sustainability Taskforce
Dear friend of the Environment,
In order for the Bermuda Environment and Sustainability Taskforce (BEST) to continue the fight against the ongoing threats to our diminishing open spaces we must begin to raise funds to support our cause. More »
If the Southlands developers build on the shoreline as planned, they will:
The Bermuda Government has this information from the Coastal Erosion study commissioned after Hurricane Fabian. We all have this information from the news from Cancun & other places reporting on the consequences of shoreline development.
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2007/03/11/cancun_nature_at_war_over_beaches/
http://www.examiner.com/a-612820~Cancun__Nature_at_War_Over_Beaches.html
Building on Bermuda’s shoreline must not be allowed!
The following is the transcript of a speech given by Mr. Rudolph Hollis (recent ex-Director for the Department of Planning) at the BEST public meeting on March 22nd, 2007.
I was invited to come this evening and speak. As a career Civil Servant, we are obviously taught and trained not to take things personally. When we assess applications, we have to be very open-minded and simply rely on our education, the policies of the day and precedence. In many cases you will get situations where you feel very personal about something, but you have to set that aside and simply deal with the facts as they are presented to you.
My presentation simply speaks to the SDO as it’s commonly known, and what I’d like to do is simply just to look at the facts as it relates to the SDO and not to be personal in terms of the actual development of the “Southlands†property. More »
Here’s another image that shows very clearly how the Southlands Resort would drastically change the shoreline. The cliffs along the beach at Southlands offer prime habitat for the critically endangered Bermuda skink and the longtail. If this resort is allowed to destroy the coastline in such a way - Bermuda will be missing a large section of important haibitat, placing our native and endemic wildlife at greater risk.
Click on the image to see a larger version
The following is a transcript of a speech given by David Wingate, at the B.E.S.T public meeting held at West Pembroke Primary School, on 22 March 2007.
Given the controversy surrounding the Southlands hotel proposal at present, a small group from the Bermuda National Trust, including myself, requested and was very kindly given a personal tour of the Southlands property by Mr. Chris Christenson, who is one of the entrepreneurs and who presently lives in the beautiful old Morgan House which he has been proudly restoring. Nestled against the hillside within a rural valley it has a commanding view of the sea and behind, on the hillside, we were given a tour of the old quarry gardens with their intricate maze of connecting paths that in some instances connect between the quarries with tunnels. The whole setting was magic, the very essence of the Bermuda image that we have traditionally projected for our tourist visitors. We all agreed, too, how wonderful if all this could become more accessible for both visitors and locals.
It has been recently reported in The Times (UK) that workers on the luxury Palm Jumeirah, sister resort to the proposed Jumeirah Southlands Resort in Bermuda, are among the 10,000 construction workers crammed into a desert labour camp on the outskirts of Dubai. The report describes how labourers from Asia are lured to Dubai with promises of well-paid jobs. However, the abuse of basic human rights has been reported, including confiscation of passports, low and unpaid wages, mass deportations and poor health and safety procedures leading to injuries, suicides and deaths. In light of Bermuda’s recent commemoration of the Slave Trade Act and our calls to end modern day slavery, the partnership between local developers and the Jumeirah group must be looked at in a new light.
Today was the deadline for any objections to the draft SDO for the Southlands Resort. BEST chairman Stuart Hayward presented more than 3,000 objections to the Minister of the Environment, Telecommunications and E-commerce including the “Save the South Shore” petition and many letters.
We’d like to give a big thanks to everyone who has written letters and/or signed the petition so far and especially to those of you who have gone out of your way to get others involved.
Below are some of the comments from the petition…
When all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money. - Cree Native American prophecy.
Scott Tucker, Bermudian
If the people behind this proposed project can’t see how it will further damage Bermuda’s already fragile and diminishing beauty, no word of mine will persuade them. I just hope the sheer volume of signatures of those against it will persuade them instead.
Janet Wingate, Bermudian
Why when there are 4 sites that are EMPTY (Sonesta, Lantana, Club Med and Morgan’s Point) does a SDO need to be pushed through for this? Precious little open space is left on the island as it is.
John Williams, Bermudian.
It’s one of the last untouched parts of Bermy. Leave it Alone!
James Doughty, Bermudian
Click on the picture to see more images
The building would come right down to the water and therefore all cliff faces would have to be obliterated.
The image below is a composite of an aerial view of the current Southlands site from Google Maps and an artist’s impression of what the Southlands Resort would look like.
Click on the image to see a larger version.
A large part of South Shore road would also be placed under a tunnel. Watch the video below to see how members of BEST marked where this tunnel would be.
