Est.2007

Barbados Underground

Bringing News and Opinions to the People

,

Next Stop, Moontown In St.Lucy

← Back

Your message to the BLOGMASTER was sent

CONTACT THE BLOGMASTER ONLY

Kellman must now be buoyed over Minister of Tourism, Richard Sealy’s statement that Government will be examining the economic feasibility of having cruise ships berth in either Speightstown or St Lucy, and an airport in St Lucy in an effort to broaden tourism beyond the West and South Coasts.

Source: Nation

denis kellmanThe quote was taken from the editorial which appeared in the Nation newspaper today (10 May 2008). In previous months, Denis Kellman the MP for St. Lucy has generated some mirth by his repeated call for the former government to site an airport in St. Lucy. He has consistently posited the argument that a strategy should be pursued to develop St. Lucy which would relieve pressure on the traditional areas like St. Michael/Bridgetown/Warrens. Additionally it would see the development of St. Lucy which like St. John has been able to escape the eye of developers during the last government.

The writer of the editorial avoided critiquing the position taken by Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy, and instead sought refuge in the comfortable and bland position of ‘rehash mode’. We don’t agree or disagree with the position which has been attributed to Minister Sealy. We don’t know if he is serious or has adopted the approach which was made popular by former Prime Minister Owen Arthur of ‘flying a kite’ and then based on feedback from the public will resort to taking the popular decision. What we know is that a responsible newspaper should be more probing especially when using the editorial page. We recommend to the Executive Editor of the Nation Roxanne Gibbs to have a read of Bajan Reporter’s excellent blog to get an idea about what is required to properly articulate a balanced position.

Minister Sealy should avoid the embarrassment caused by ‘running at the mouth disease’, his colleague Minister Chris Sinckler became inflicted with the disease over the Ghanaian affair. This is obviously a matter which needs significant research and planning before public comments are made. We have been consistent in our message that Barbados must have a national strategic plan geared to competitively reposition our country on the global stage. Minister Sealy would be advised to reign in his off the cuff comments about such a significant undertaking of building a port in St. Lucy. He should remember that Barbadians voted for change. There is an expectation that the way we expect our new government to take significant decisions going forward should depart from the ‘business as usual’ mode.

We have pocketed the idea that the reported comments by Minister Sealy is part of a plan to pander to the unpredictable Denis Kellman. Much was said when he did not get the ministry he wanted back in January. Barbadians have become very uneasy at the approach to developing our coastline property in recent years. The new government should be very deliberate about how it plans to develop the unspoilt St. Lucy, very careful indeed!

Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

29 responses to “Next Stop, Moontown In St.Lucy”

  1. Straight talk Avatar
    Straight talk

    One facility that is needed to buoy up our beleaguered tourism product in challenging times ahead is a large scale yachting marina.

    When fuel price drastically reduces our jet traffic, one area of tourism growth will be sailing.
    We do nothing to stop this lucrative trade sailing right by us to Antigua or St Lucia.

    Maycocks Bay or Speightstown itself would be ideal sites, but I fear the developments are already agreed but not yet announced.

  2. Linchh Avatar
    Linchh

    It’s a pity when issues of national development are personalised and treated in such poor taste. The development of the part of Barbados beyond Speightstown is more about maximising the potential in our resources than about Dennis Kellman. But Kellie should be applauded for his persistence.

  3. David Avatar
    David

    Linchh we must put the personalization in context. Barbados is a society where most of our leaders seem hell bent on creating legacies. Kellman because of his persistence the lapdog media has latched development in the North to Kellman. But we agree with you because this issue is taller than Kellman.

  4. Bajan Avatar
    Bajan

    BU’s point is valid. Thompson’s boys need to think before they go off making statements. Elections finish since January. The people looking for a studious and deliberate approach to managing Barbados.

  5. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    There is a need to cite Kellman. Because he is not a doctor or lawyer he has been laughed at for years everytime he opened his mouth.

    Most of our politicians and leaders can not even run the proverbial rum shop but were laughing at his so called Kellmanomics.

    It is extremely difficult for any black man to man a business in Barbados.

  6. Green Monkey Avatar
    Green Monkey

    Does anyone seriously think (besides Kellman) that, given the size of Barbados, a 2nd airport in St. Lucy is a viable option? The only reason I an see for one is that in an emergency if Grantley Adams was closed down, say by a big airplane crash which blocked the runway, we would not be cut off by air while the runway was being cleared.

    However, to build and run a second airport in St. Lucy capable of handling jet traffic so it could be on stand-by in case of an airport closing incident at GA would be one very expensive proposition as I see it.

    I think I heard at one time that Kellman was proposing that a St. Lucy airport could handle the inter-island traffic while leaving the big jets and the US, Canada, Europe traffic to GA. Well that would most likely mean that the residents of St. Vincent, Grenada, Dominica etc. would be much less likely to want to pass through Barbados to catch a flight to England, the US or Canada. Not only would they have the high GA user fees, but now they would also have the hassle of taking a 1hr ride in a taxi, shuttle bus (or heaven forbid – a ZR van LOL) from the Kellman Interregional Airport in St. Lucy to GA International in Christ Church to catch their flight.

  7. anotherview Avatar
    anotherview

    In the great USA the highways are built to land a plane in case of emergency. why not Barbados?

  8. Yardbroom Avatar
    Yardbroom

    Without knowing the long term tourism strategy of the present Administration, it is very difficult to have an informed opinion, of the proposal to site a second airport in St.Lucy.

    Airports are a necessary evil, and they are constructions we have to live with, but where possible they should be avoided like the plague. If economic benefits and others, can be gained by such a large scale capital outlay, so be it but I can think of many infra structure developments which are more important to the needs of Barbados.

    We must be careful, not to go down the road of laying acres of concrete, in the belief that “concrete brutalism” on a large scale indicates progress. Examples in other countries also dependent on tourism, gives us much needed information. There must always be some places for solitude and peace, with the necessary green acres that often make that state of mind possible, in tourist destinations.

    The “average” tourist travels to get away from a high density environment, they wish a locality where they can relax. We must get the balance right, to ensure we do not have 144 square miles of high density concrete… it would be a pity, if in so doing we lose the character ” a natural essence” of Barbados.

  9. Undertaker Avatar
    Undertaker

    anotherview // May 11, 2008 at 9:04 am

    In the great USA the highways are built to land a plane in case of emergency. why not Barbados?
    *******************************************

    Because we are only 166sq miles, we DO NOT have the land space. We barely have space for 270,000 bajans and 50,000 guyanesse and the 30,000 other regional long stay visitors. Oh add to that now about 10 or so africans.

  10. Tony Hall Avatar
    Tony Hall

    While the idea by the Gov’t is a laudable one I am sure more research has to be done to see if the long term financial benefits will outweigh the costs to start and complete a project of this magnitude.

  11. Bush tea Avatar
    Bush tea

    Here we go again…

    This is exactly how we ended up with the ABC highway scam which is NOT going to solve the traffic chaos problems.

    Bizzy Williams, Minister of Communications of the Williams brothers Government, drops in on Glyne Clarke with a great ‘flyover’ solution…

    …We all know the rest.

    Before we could clean up that mess, Sir COW himself eyes a Mariner where the cement plant is located and now Ambassador Kellman wants an airport so he can get to parliament pass the traffic…(not really, .. but Bush tea could not resist…)

    What do all these scenarios have in common with Former Minister Walcott’s brainchild of building a new Hospital for 700 Million dollars? …and Hillary Beckles wanting 300 Million to invest at Cave Hill?

    …a fool and his money is soon parted…

    The good news is that (since these are two top Government officials speaking), we still seem to have some more monies waiting to be ‘parted’… Things may not be as bad as we had heard – maybe Sir Roy will get his double digits after all….

  12. The People's Democratic Congress Avatar
    The People’s Democratic Congress

    The construction of a strategically sited modern small airport in the north of the country is a concept that the People’s Democratic Congress (PDC) would be prepared to support ONLY if such an airport were to be seen by many countrymen and women as being at the centre of the future substantial industrialization and commercialization of Barbados, and too if it were to be seen by such people as part and parcel of the thrust to primarily further integrate the industrial, commercial, transportation and residential centres of the country.

    However, as a consequence of what we were reading in the Saturday Sun’s Editorial of May 10, 2008, that this already wayward DLP Government would be looking at the feasibility of having an airport, cruise ship berths, etc, in the north as part of “an effort to broaden tourism beyond the West and South Coasts”, we in PDC can only begin to think how this concept of having an airport in the north has been so totally obscenely, yet so cowardly hijacked by a small narrow-minded, self serving few in Barbados – who continue to think that certain nationally important things can only go ahead or get popularized on the basis of their fiat or involvement – and when it suits them to do so – that for many members in our party to think that such an idea will come into manifestation any time within, say, the next 15 years, would indeed be misthinking on their part, given that the government is NOT really that serious enough about so many things including the establishment of such an airport. If they were that serious about the idea of an airport in the north, such would have been part of their visionless, artless, ordinary 2008 election manifesto, we believe. But, then, they were NEVER serious about reducing the cost of living in Barbados, yet it has been a promise made in their last Manifesto!!

    Nevertheless, we in PDC would like to get back on track and ask: where was the visible moral and political support for Mr. Kellman from Mr. Sealy and others in the DLP when Mr. Kellman first had floated such a concept in the House of Assembly some time ago? Where was the open moral and political support for Mr. Kellman from many DLP head honchos when Mr. Kellman was talking some time ago about the Abolition of so-called personal income taxation? Where was the damn support? Where was it when Mr. Kellman appeared to be the lone strong DLP voice criticizing the destruction of the then old Kensington Oval, when instead the old venue should have been kept by the BCA and Government, and an entirely new venue built some where else in the country (Kelly might have suggested some where in St. Lucy), thus saving the country much wasted money on destroying the old venue and building a different one on the same location? After long ignoring many of Mr. Kellman’s ideas, why must many DLP leaders now appear to be in obeisance to many of these ideas? Because he is a known semi-firebrand, and therefore he has to be kept cool in order for the DLP ship of state to appear to be sailing as best as possible in these rough waters that we are presently experiencing?

    But, by at last finding the common sense to be now seen to be factitiously supporting some of Kelly’s earlier positions – now that Sir Charles has talked – though very wrongly and out of place – about marinas and tourism development for the north of Barbados – this bunch of late learners – those who now seek to be so openly but so shamelessly supporting Mr. Kellman’s ideas – have, in our view, gone ahead and sought to support Kelly’s positions for so many wrong reasons. And, by so unintelligently and callously seeking to tie the concept of an airport to tourism development for the north (even the usually intelligent and astute James Paul has apparently fallen prey to this nonsense – pg. 41, Weekend Nation, Friday, May 9, 2008 ), these people think they are about to succeed in getting the masses and middle classes to buy into their rubbish, if only because “tourism is our business” – more trash!! But, they are wrong!! Because, thousands upon thousands of Barbadians already know that tourism is NOT OUR business, and that that is really the business of the elite and the government.

    With regard to the 82 acres of land that is being proposed for tourism development purposes, what is very clear is that these aforementioned people want the masses and middle classes of Barbados to buy into what is clearly another ill-conceived and dangerous proposition that another wretched government is prepared to foist on the people of this country. Indeed, because of the type of geology, environment, and location, et al, of the St. Lucy, that part of the north is clearly NOT suited for tourism development. It is far more suited to industrial and manufacturing development!! Not even the half foolishness that the East Coast is to be left for Barbadians alone is enough to make the masses and middle classes NOT see through the wider DLP government’s irrational agenda to allow many more of our precious lands to be sold to foreigners. Also, the vast majority of DLP members and many local and foreign investors in tourism know that St. Lucy is NOT the best place for tourism development!!! What they are fundamentally doing – in the case of these 82 acres of land – is really commiting a ruse – to get more of our precious lands to be sold to foreigners in exchange for filthy lucre. While we are at it, what has really become of the BLP-BST inspired Pierhead Development Project?

    In closing, the fact of the matter is that Barbados right now is putting too much emphases on so-called tourism development, when instead Barbados ought to be presently putting greater emphases on greater agricultural, agroprocessing, and heavy duty intensive manufacturing development, and linking such with greater focus on the repositioning, redeveloping and consolidating of the wider commercial, transportation and residential sectors in Barbados, and such on the basis of the right revolutionary political, social, material and financial policies and programs. Meanwhile, keep humble, forthright and visionary, Mr. Kellman!!

    PDC

  13. What I hearing Avatar
    What I hearing

    We barely have space for 270,000 bajans and 50,000 guyanesse and the 30,000 other regional long stay visitors. Oh add to that now about 10 or so africans
    ………………………………………………………………………hahahahahawooooeeeee muh belly. In all seriousness Richard Sealey likes running off at the mouth and trying to sound like he knows it all. I used to admire Sealey but that is dimishing with his statements like the Bridgetown Port is obsolete. Sealy come on the Port wins best port prizes every year. Or was Muscle Mary ,Tatem and Walters lying to us. Well we know Muscle Mary was a compulsive liar.

    The St. Lucy airport and seaport pie in the sky thing I dont know what to say . Sounds a bit hair brained to me. Kellman as we all know is all about Kellman. It was interesting he refused comment when the self installed Emperor of Barbados ,Sir Cow call for removal of Arawak and its replacement with a cruise port. SIR COW is not to be trusted . Kellman-omics is about stroking kellman’s elephant size ego. Sealey needs to shut up and produce increased tourist dollars. St.Lucy airport, seaport like buying Broolkyn Bridge. More mirage than actual an enormous drain on taxpayers without guaranteed returns.

  14. Krzysztof Skubiszewski Avatar
    Krzysztof Skubiszewski

    I have a legacy proposal for Kellman.

    Get St. Lucy’s roads fixed first!

    They’re a disgrace.

  15. cruise ships

    […] ships berth in either Speightstown or St Lucy, and an airport in St Lucy in an effort to broaden thttp://bajan.wordpress.com/2008/05/10/denis-kellman-stlucy-barbados/Weakening dollar strengthens cruise industry in Europe Centre Daily TimesWhen Miami banker David […]

  16. Jukecheckedeyskirt Avatar
    Jukecheckedeyskirt

    An airport in St. Lucy sounds pretty good to me if you looking to waste more money, which is a norm in this country. We just spent millions on our Tent Like Airport and still disembarking from a plane is directly in the elements. We just spent millions on our airport, but there is no improvements to expedite the checking process. We just spent millions on our airport but we still ‘cooking’ at the check-in counters particularly those towards the south. We spent millions of dollars on our airport and you tell me that no one could perceived the idea of installing another landing strip if not two. You think that Barbados is a JFK or Heathrow that process hundreds if not thousands of planes by the hour. And last but certainly not least, you think that Barbados is of a size and population that it needs a second airport. What Barbados needs is a sound management plan, what Barbados needs is honest politicians, what Barbados needs is to stem the influx of lucrative foreign investment that is changing the landscape of our rock and marginalizing its people. What Barbados needs is serious restrictions to its immigration policy. What Barbados needs is diversification in its Agriculture sector with more emphasis on planting our own food and finding new ways and means of better utilizing our indigenous food sources. What Barbados need is for the people to have more say in the decision making process particularly when contemplating mega investment decisions. What Barbados needs is a diet filled with ITAL …..IYA …. JAH RASTAFARI.

  17. Jukecheckedeyskirt Avatar
    Jukecheckedeyskirt

    One more thing, can someone tell the Peoples Democratic Congress to write shorter sentences that makes sense. Not personal but one of your sentences takes two years to read…

  18. Ding Dong Bell Avatar
    Ding Dong Bell

    Have you ever heard the concept of the paragraph?

  19. Jukecheckedeyskirt Avatar
    Jukecheckedeyskirt

    No I have not but thank you for reminding me about paragraph concept, maybe you can help decifer PDC’s paragraphs since you seem to be a paragraph guru…

  20. peltdownman Avatar
    peltdownman

    The kind of marina needed by Barbados is not what Sir Charles has in mind. He wants another Port St Charles, where multi-millionaires can berth their megabucks yachts for a high fee. There is a need for a yacht marina similar to that in Rodney Bay in St Lucia, or Tortola. However, I do not agree that it should be located in St Lucy, but rather much closer to Bridgetown. As for airports and cruise ship terminals, have we not forgotten that we are only 21 miles long and 14 miles wide? The kind of costs involved in such infrastructure could never be justified, especially as we have just spent enormous amounts on speeding up the process of getting from north to south and vice versa. I agree with Yardbroom. We are already in serious danger of eliminating the very essence of what “Barbados” means to many people around the world who like to visit here. I can assure you that it is not coast-to-coast concrete, huge “brand name” hotels, and international fast food franchises. It costs a lot of money to visit Barbados, so why are we trying to make it look and feel like Miami Beach or Cancun? If we do, then tourists will simply visit those places instead, as they are much cheaper to get to.

  21. Iain Edghill Avatar
    Iain Edghill

    If I, as a retired airline pilot, might be permitted to offer an opinion, all discussions regarding the necessity for a 2nd airport for Barbados, in St. Lucy should center around aircraft movements.

    GAIA has approximately 100-130 aircraft movements [an aircraft “movement” is defined as 1 take-off and 1 landing] per day at the most. LaGuardia in New York, by contrast, has that same number PER HOUR. Toronto has slightly less. London Heathrow about the same. Using this sole criterion, a 2nd airport for Barbados, or a 2nd runway for GAIA is indefensible. The only way a small, commuter-type airport could be justified is as a base for the RSS.

    Airports consume huge amounts of real estate. Land that is converted into asphalt for an airport is land that is out of agricultural production. Airports also consume huge numbers of dollars for maintenance. Any airport that handles passengers must have instrument landing capabilities and that cost money to set up, calibrate, and maintain. Precision is essential; you can’t say, “Well, it’s only a couple of yards off center.” That’ll put an airplane off the runway and into the canes, with the accompanying big bang!

    To say that all inter-island traffic could use the St. Lucy airport and international jet traffic could land at GAIA is also specious reasoning, bearing in mind the increased pressure on the roads and communications infrastructure – not to mention the cost – of having a shuttle service between St. Lucy and the southern areas of the island and GAIA [ask anyone who has taken an international flight into Hewanorra, St. Lucia and then has to take a cab ride to Castries to catch a LIAT flight onward].

    Not to be the proverbial wet blanket and a killjoy to Mr. Kellman’s suggestions, but the idea of a second airport for Barbados is, IMHO, indefensible, on logistical, financial, environmental, and social grounds, as is the idea of a 2nd runway for GAIA.

    Enough of these delusions of grandeur and be practical, and make what Barbados ALREADY has work better and more efficiently. Put the money into the QEH and build a new hospital, not airport, in the north of Barbados. Let Barbadians’ tax dollars serve the citizens and residents of Barbados, not the fickle and finicky tourists.

    Now there’s a novel concept!

  22. David Avatar
    David

    Is Kellman basing his position on Barbados being a tourist/service economy and the need to implement disaster preparedness tactics?

    Kellman might want to suggest that in the USA and UK the fact that other airports are available outside of Gatwick and Heathrow does not make it an apples and apples comparison.

  23. king ja ja Avatar
    king ja ja

    The idea of an airport in St. Lucy is not the way to go. Since the 166 square miles does not allow for such a development, to occur, the idea of thr crusie ships seems to be the proper idea. Remember that you have Port St.charles already next door, and a combination of or an expanding of a port would be ideal.
    We must not spoil the beauty of St.Lucy, like what was done on the south and west coast, ever again in this country.
    Implementing of fery services along the west and south coast, would help eliminate the constant congestion on the streets of this small island.
    Mr. Kellman has done a great job as an advocate for St. Lucy, well done.

  24. KC Avatar
    KC

    I don’t believe that there is a need at the moment for a second airport in St. Lucy. That does not mean to say that 20 or 30 years down the road that such a move wouldn’t be viable if an expanded Grantley Adams reaches its capacity. What is needed would be an independent study; not one funded by politicians to see if this is viable or even needed at the moment which I do not believe it is. I agree with a lot of the comments above. Barbadians, the government included have a tendancy to put the cart before the horse to satisfy their grandiose thoughts. Improve the roads especially in rural areas first, build a new hospital, improve the fate of some of the poorer people in the island, consolidate the general good thing we have going for such a small island first, strive to make things work better and improve the poor service you get before you talk about building airports. Surprisingly, investment will follow, tourism will become more efficient and, eventually, there may be a need for a second airport. With regards to a second port, I’m actually all for a second port for smaller cruise ships in either Carlisle Bay, Holetown or Speightstown. None of this should be done however without making sure that the infrastructure is in place and PROPER PLANNING to make sure that Barbadians and visitors alike will benefit. We need to stop copying things that we see in other islands in an effort to maintain our perceived status as a so-called more developed Caribbean island and do what is right for Barbadians, and the built and physical environment.

  25. Iain Edghill Avatar
    Iain Edghill

    KC, excellent post! I would just like to comment on your statement, “That does not mean to say that 20 or 30 years down the road that such a move wouldn’t be viable if an expanded Grantley Adams reaches its capacity.”

    As I pointed out in my earlier post, GAIA has a long way to go before it would in any way approach operating capacity. At the moment, if GAIA has 120 aircraft movements per day, they have a lot. To reach operating capacity, they would have to somehow reach 30-40 movements PER HOUR, and operate 24/7/365. I can tell you the because of the nature of airline scheduling to the Caribbean, and because of the fickle and cyclical nature of tourism, it is highly unlikely that airlines like Air Canada, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic or American would go to more than 3 flights per day. That would bring the daily aircraft movements up to around 150, way off the saturation capacity of the airport. In addition, the trend is to smaller aircraft, with the exception of VS [Virgin Atlantic] who have ordered the A380 which seats around 600.

    I may be completely wrong, and I certainly do not have a crystal ball, but I can’t see GAIA ever reaching saturation capacity, and especially if oil continues to climb [just today AA announced cutbacks to their schedule]. And unlike the governor of the Central Bank, I can’t see an American economic revival forcing the price of oil downwards [I have only 2 words for the good governor as to why the price of oil will not come down: China and India]. And unless oil somehow moderates or decreases in price, there are going to be fewer airlines flying.

    A trifling contrarian position to your otherwise excellent and perceptive post.

    Cheers,

    IE.

  26. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Bashing me does not help to develop Barbados. Seaports and Airports bring infrastructural development. If we want to be a developed country, we have to proactive and not reactive. On kellmanomics, it is the right tonic to create a productive climate in the country. We have to stop having policies to ptotect a “too few” and it about increasing productivity, while increasing foreign exchange. Only a shopkeeper.

  27. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Bashing me does not help to develop Barbados. Seaports and Airports bring infrastructural development. If we want to be a developed country, we have to proactive and not reactive. On kellmanomics, it is the right tonic to create a productive climate in the country. We have to stop having policies to protect a “too few” and it is about increasing productivity, while increasing foreign exchange. Only a shopkeeper.

  28. David Avatar
    David

    How is Moontown doing?

  29. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Hi Kelli

    Good to see you joining the family.

    Keep the fight going and stay real.

The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.

Trending

Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading