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Pendry Barbados development – Residents of Six Mens in the dark

Pendry Barbados

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Colin Jordan, Minister of Labour and MP for St. Peter

From the inception of Barbados Underground we have had to deal with the recurring issue of locals being concerned about the rabid allocation of prime land for tourism development in Barbados. The insensitivity shown by successive governments and developers to the concerns of locals and residents directly impacted by the development is a matter of record.

Barbados is a tiny island and land as a scare resource should be intelligently allocated for development with those living in the area communicated with to ensure harmony. The blind rush to sell our land for the proverbial 30 pieces of silver is not sustainable on a tiny land mass.

As we drive around Barbados and observe the chaos do we have confidence in the approval process by successive governments? We see the confusion daily in the Warrens area? We see it in the Kendal area. We see it in the Six Roads area to name a few.

From all reports a luxury brand Pendry Hotels & Resorts is coming to Barbados to be located in Six Mens, St. Peter. Here is a website setup presumably to share high level information by the developer Pendry Barbados but mainly to check a box. The following was extracted from the website:

Pendry Barbados will feature 74 newly designed beachfront guest rooms, a private marina, multiple signature dining concepts, Spa Pendry, Pinwheel Kids’ Club and more, all alongside the debut of Pendry Residences Barbados.

Pentry Barbados website
Read more: Pendry Barbados development – Residents of Six Mens in the dark

The majority of Barbadians are not against an investment policy to encourage development, although of concern, it is yet another tourism initiative. However, concerns of residents in the area must be addressed. What is the point of this Mottley government professing to be a government of and for the people while ignoring concerns coming from locals?

Here are some concerns by residents living in the area.

  • How much money did the government raise from the sale of the land?
  • Will the money be spent on the residents of Six Mens?
  • Will the government compulsory purchase existing homes?
  • Where to will residents be relocated?
  • Where is the road to be relocated if there is a hotel on site on the existing road?
  • How will residents access the beach?
  • The environmental impacts currently – lots of dusts and fumes – no compensation for local residents?
  • When will the plans be made public?
  • What will happen to the fisheries folk?

Is it too much for residents to be treated with respect? In fact isn’t looking after the interest of the citizenry a core responsibility of any government?

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13 responses to “Pendry Barbados development – Residents of Six Mens in the dark”

  1. Terence M Blackett Avatar
    Terence M Blackett

    @David

    Good Morn, Bruv,

    #QuestionNo10:

    Do you really think your #PoLIEticiansCare???

  2. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    “We have found 3846 Barbados Hotels”* (is this correct?)
    https://www.expedia.com/All-Barbados-Hotels.d16.Travel-Guide-City-All-Hotels

    (*) Some Hotels could be converted into flats for local residents, either by businesses and/or Government

  3. TLSN Avatar
    TLSN

    @ Dub555,
    Barbados has a population of 285,000. If they are 3846 hotels in the country. That would give you a ratio of 74:1.

    That is an astonishingly high number of hotels on a dot of an island.

    It would be interesting to know the ratio of foreign ownership within the domestic property market and the ratio of land which they possess in comparison to the impoverished locals.

  4. David Avatar
    David

    Why do some of you post nonsense on the blog? What 3000 plus hotels what. Not it is the hotel sector which all the impoverished locals to live high on the hog.

  5. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    “Barbados has a population of 285,000. If they are 3846 hotels in the country. That would give you a ratio of 74:1.

    That is an astonishingly high number of hotels on a dot of an island. ”
    “What 3000 plus hotels what.”

    The “error” was in expedia data information,
    which is why there was the disclaimer “(is this correct?)”
    perhaps data also included guest houses, Air B&B rooms etc

    the morale of the tale is you have to verify all facts (especially on web)
    and shouldn’t get over excited about disputing information crowing like it is a victory

    I’m just a passer-by .. but, expounding on the nuanced point intended for simpletons…

    Racism/segregation
    We are now living in an age when whites are less segregated from blacks and rich and poor are not as divided.

    Tourism
    Tourists now may want to dive deeper into local culture and mix with public for a fuller meaningful Barbados experience, especially younger / backpack tourists

    Gentrification
    Rich and poor now live in shared communities which are redeveloped.

    Social Housing
    Property developers should also build for locals and poor in plans.

    Concessions
    Governments should only allow planning permission, if locals and poor are included in plans, and fast track applications that meet these plans.

    Incentives
    With incentives given for cohesive community designs such as shops, local amenities, green initiatives etc.

    Thinking outside the box with joined up thinking
    Tourism and residential properties, retirement care homes and communities can be built for locals ex-pats migrants and returning bajans collectively with some forward and joined up thinking

  6. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    The Hotel picture above reminded me of a Miami apartment complex
    Luxury Flats go for several hundred grand plus, it’s all about location

  7. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    Using an American analogy
    Should locals in Barbados be treated like Native Americans forced into Reservations at the Edge of America. The trope that trickle down Capitalism and Tourism helps everyone in society is a fallacy touted by greedy piggy Conservatives. What or where is the future planning for the greatest resource of the nation and family, the children?

    Sons and Daughters (Reprise)
    You can’t stop running water
    You can’t kill the fire that burns inside
    Don’t deny our flesh and blood
    Don’t forsake our sons and daughters

    I think we’re all runnin’ thinkin’ that we can hide
    I think we’re runnin’ try in’ to get away
    But sooner or later we gonna realize
    We gonna meet up with the truth face to face

    You can’t stop running water
    You can’t kill the fire that burns inside
    Don’t deny our flesh and blood
    Don’t forsake our sons and daughters

    It’s freedom of speech – as long as you don’t say too much
    But sooner or later we gonna realize
    We gonna meet up with the truth face to face

  8. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Maybe we can be told how does social ‘harmony’ assist Bajans on visits to supermarkets?

    We posit that there is a need for a more sophisticated approach for these meek, mealy-mouthed, utterances from a bygone era are fully inconsistent with lived realities.

    Such a sophisticated outlook would have considered Bajans, who are affected by such ‘underdevelopment’ projects, as stakeholders, part owners, for money capital means nothing without social capital.

    Now this is the enlightened position, though outside the traditional or biased mindset. For it avoids these interminable pleas for ordinary people to be forever utermensch.

  9. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Untermensch

  10. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Well, Barbados has finally showed up in the war on Palestine.

    As a Barbados flagged, UK owned, ship comes under attack in the Bab el Mandel Straights by the brave fighters of Ansurallah, derisively referred to by the West as the Houthis.

    The ship registration regime we presume. Of course, as a function of the financial system.

  11. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    This might not make it …
    Start with everything is a scam, a con, a kickback and it all makes sense.

    Edumacated asses.

  12. David Avatar
    David

    Hopefully Barbados can withstand the weigh of the concrete.

    Govt finds more land for housing

    Government has identified more land as it makes good on its promise to find 20 000 homes for Barbadians and their families.

    Yesterday, it moved to vest two parcels of land to the National Housing Corporation (NHC) at Castle Grant Plantation and Ginger Works, St Joseph, which was welcomed by St Joseph Member of Parliament (MP) Dale Marshall.

    Minister of Housing and Lands Dwight Sutherland, who brought the resolution to the House of Assembly during its sitting yesterday afternoon, said the 10.24 acres will see 84 houses being built at Castle Grant and 13 lots for Ginger Works.

    While giving a wide-ranging housing thrust plan, he also admitted that construction of the promised homes had been slow.

    “I will admit the pace has been slow. Building a house is not like building a road, or just cleaning a piece of property or signing a piece of legislation. We have to engage in infrastructure and that takes a length of time . . . . But Government has found land across the island to build the more than 20 000, which comes to some 1 700 acres in all. We have to acquire land by way of private treaty or by planning gains or by use of the Land Acquisition Act.”

    The minister said the 84 new homes would be just a dent in the housing requirements.

    18 000 applicants

    “We have to be mindful that different areas of Barbados present different dynamics. In some areas we would be comfortable building affordable and resilient housing, but in some areas some persons want the land available to them and they do it themselves,” Sutherland told the Lower Chamber.

    He added that some of the lots at Ginger Works will be in that capacity where families build their own homes instead of Government.

    “With the 84 homes at Castle Grant it will be different types of housing solutions. We do not have land mass to build single dwelling homes. There will be duplexes, quadruplexes and high-rise, and that will give us part of the 20 000.”

    The St George South MP said that in his last count, the NHC had 18 000 applicants and since then there had been several house fairs, so that number had now risen to over 25 000 applications.

    “I can’t say it will be done in a year . . . but it will be done.”

    Marshall said he was “excited that St Joseph will now have public housing development as I am concerned about the rural communities being abandoned as people move out to live in other parishes”.

    “Rural communities will die if we don’t keep life there. Village shops and churches will die,” he said.

    Marshall, who is also Attorney General, said he hoped that some of the lots will be spots available to rent so that those who are not financially capable of handling a mortgage will not be disadvantaged. He also said that the water problem plaguing the parish was now solved “and it is a thing of the past”.

    Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn said that the HOPE (Home Ownership Providing Energy) programme was there to help clear the housing backlog, and that HOPE also had the capability to build a home on family land, whether one lot or a subdivision.

    (NS)


    Source: Nation

  13. David Avatar
    David

    Six Men’s concerns

    by CARLOS ATWELL

    carlosatwell@nationnews.com

    QUESTIONS ARE BEING RAISED about the ongoing development in Six Men’s, St Peter, with some people saying they are not being given enough information.

    Resident Alwyn Babb and community spokesperson Ian Griffith say many people in the area are feeling left out and left behind.

    “The problem is with the type of communication,” Babb said. “The people are seeing widespread development which is causing changes to how they will access their homes, but no one is saying anything to them. They are telling me, once the stage where the road is completed and the hotel (Pendry Hotel) starts to build, they are not sure what will happen to them.”

    Babb, a former Democratic Labour Party candidate for St Peter, said there was also concern about land ownership and relocation. He said there were people who had lived in the area for generations who were now worried if they would have to move while others, who were squatting, wanted to know if their positions could be made legal.

    “We saw the squatters near the airport have been given the land so the people here who are also squatting want the same treatment,” he said.

    Babb, a secondary school teacher and athletics coach, also raised issues concerning whether the beach would be reclaimed using breakwaters and if the fishing village would be refurbished.

    “Under successive governments, the people of Six Men’s have been treated unfairly, especially as it pertains to land ownership. We want to know what is really going to happen,” he said.

    Griffith’s contention was with road diversions, which included a temporary road recently built from the entrance of Six Men’s Village cul-de-sac, connecting to the development on Colleton Main Road. He said it had not been part of the discussion during the Barbados Labour Party’s St Peter Parish Speaks held in February.

    “They never said they were going to use this as a temporary access road and now I’m understanding the main road will be blocked off. At the last meeting at the St Peter Parish Church, they said the road would not be inaccessible to the people of Six Men’s.

    Make it permanent

    “My thing is, if they can build a temporary road straight through to Colleton, why not make it permanent? Six Men’s Village is a cul-desac and the temporary road begins halfway up the village, so now it’s actually easier for people to access their homes,” he said, adding he was worried the temporary road would eventually be allowed to go to ruin.

    However, some residents said they had been given correspondence as to the upcoming changes. One of those letters, compiled by Haigh Communications, which represents the developers of the proposed Pendry Hotel project, outlines the road rehabilitation and closures.

    It stated that the rehabilitation of tenantry roads in the area should have already been completed followed by the closure of the Six Men’s cul-de-sac from the highway junction.

    “This work is scheduled from April 2 to May 2, 2024. During this time, the contractor will be preparing the roadways in preparation for the new roundabout. During the closure, traffic will not be able to turn right from Highway 1B onto the Six Men’s cul-de-sac, but will be diverted along Highway 1B to enter through Colleton Gardens and access the Six Men’s cul-de-sac using the rehabilitated tenantry road.

    “This temporary road closure and detour may lead to increased traffic, dust and noise in the area. However, the contractor will endeavour to mitigate any inconvenience caused to the public.”

    Efforts to reach both Senior Minster in charge of infrastructural projects and Town Planning matters, Dr William Duguid, and Member of Parliament for St Peter Colin Jordan, were unsuccessful.

    Source: Nation

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