End of the West Bay Road
(CNS): Four ladies from West Bay battling to save the coastal road that has served as a highway from West Bay to George Town for over hundred years received disappointing news Friday, when the Court of Appeal upheld a Grand Court’s decision to throw out their legal action on a time technicality. The ladies had argued through local attorney Anthony Akiwumi that the start point could not be the signing of the so-called ‘NRA agreement' in December 2011 as it was a closed door deal, which was not made public until after the strip of road was closed and handed to the local developer, Dart Realty. However, the court said it was satisfied that Justice Alex Henderson was correct to find the action out of time. This means that the merits of the case have still not been considered by a court.
This is, however, likely to be the end of the road for the women, in more ways than one, unless they can raise the necessary funds to fight the issue before the Privy Council in the UK.
The women were granted legal aid for the case when it was heard before Henderson. But because of arguments over when the deal was truly made, an issue that remains in question because of the closed door nature of the talks and the fact that the deal remained under wraps, the details of the action filed by Alice Mae Coe, Annie Multon, Ezmie Smith and Betty Ebanks have never been examined by a judge.
As a result, the women raised their own money to fight the decision by Henderson on appeal and if they are to take the case to London they will once again need to finance that action themselves.
If, however, this is the end of the West Bay Road, Dart is, in the near future, likely to receive the remaining strip of the 4,000 metre stretch of the road, given to him in the closed door swap.
The strip given to Dart before the general election in 2013 is now mostly under sand after the developer planned to begin work on revamping the public beach. However, ongoing negotiations between Dart and the government on elements of the same deal have stalled that project, though work continues on what will now be a beachfront resort on the site of the former Courtyard Marriott.
If the developers are given the remaining strip of road, it will be able to develop what will be a significant stretch of beachfront property on the very last remaining unspoilt strip of Seven Mile Beach.
During the election campaign the PPMhad promised to renegotiate the controversial NRA agreement with Dart and had stated that they wanted to find a way to retain a through route for the original West Bay Road around Dart’s development.
However, the PPM said after coming to office that the deal was legally binding and they could not pull the plug. In addition, negotiations over the last 18 months to balance the deal back in favour of the public purse still appear to be making slow progress. Promises by the PPM to overturn the concession given to Dart of a 50% accommodation tax rebate on all his tourist properties for the next thirty years have not yet been fulfilled. Where government now stands in this deal remains unclear.
Category: Local News
so, Dart gets 5,000 feet of West Bay road..worth 1 billion
and what do we get ??
1. no additional puplic beach on 7 mile beach like it was promised !( Victoria House )
2.. no new waste management facility ( like it was promised in Midland)
3. no free highway to Midland ( as promised )
4.. no FREE remidiation of mount trashmore !! ( like it was promised )
looks to me like we got a bad deal and Dart made out like a bandit !
so sad ! we will die from the dump poison by the way.. Thanks B.T. rep
18:23. where do I start? Listen, we would have got ALL of the above IF the C.I Government had accepted the contract and went FORWARD.
Please please WAKE-UP!
It is not DART to blame here folks, the issue is our representatives.
How the heck is 5000 feet of west bay road worth a billion dollars, and it wasn't Dart that reniged on fixing the Dump, you need to look at your PPM leaders they are the ones who stopped this and well and the work on the new beach.
Without all the political interference you can best believe Dart would have delivered on all thier promises, something the CIG doesn't do..
It is incredible how people twist the truth to suit thier own needs and even more incredible how many people listen to them.
Amazing how the Dart paupers and peasants never fail to rise on behalf of their ruler with their consistent ignorant arguments and blind biases.
Incredibly amusing and very pitiful bunch.
16:31, touche Mac.
There's an old saying that goes : IT'S NOT OVER TILL THE FAT LADY SINGS!
WHAT NO-ONE SEEMS TO HAVE NOTICED IS: The hotel is sitting directly over an earth-quake fault.
It has been predicted, that there will be another quake in the near future, like the 6.7 we had in 2004.
Hopefully it will happen before the Grand Opening! "Remember Sodom"
14:11, I would recommend that you stop smoking crack.
Actually, IT AINT OVER. TILL THE. FAT MAN. GETS. PAID.
Now hopefully Dart can get back to work on the Public Beach project so we can all enjoy it without ducking cars in the road and walking around those parked on the beach and now they can continue their work of beautifying the Island, load knows nobody else is. Especially those of use that call ourselves Caymanian..
The WB ladies should now focus their attention on campaigning against McKeeva Bush ever being elected to public office again.
So where is the Govenor in all of this? It had been widely reported that only the governor could act on reversing portions of the behind doors agreement yet the last Governor did nothing. Now all indications are that the ladies must appeal to the Privy Council in the UK.
Are we to take it that the actions of McKeeva Bush and the UDP party are representative and fully approved by the Queen herself despite the public backlash of this one-sided agreement that the Cayman public will be paying for for years and years and years to come?
The goal posts always been moving in this case and much needed clarity has about as clear as the dirty Caymana Bay water.
Oh god please just shut up and drink your Hater Aid..
These ladies are powerful and organized. I hope they continue to use their minds, money, time, and connections to address and fight the growing crime problem in Cayman.
Why don't you put your money where you mouth is?
That’s a refreshing comment considering far too many regard those 4 West Bay ladies to be just 5 stars criminals just breaking the code. I have absolutely no doubt they could take down Magneto And Titanium Man plus the Crimson Dynamo if they had to. I think we should just go ask Paul who is the law. In the meantime I hope them ladies gather their forces and RUN all the way to the Privy Council!
00:50, and the Dump.
unless they can raise the necessary funds to fight the issue before the Privy Council.
They would also have to persuade the Privy Council to hear the case, and somehow I doubt the Privy Council will find the issue sufficiently important to merit their time.
If the ladies can get over the judges why a short stretch of road is of such cultural and historic importance then they might might be in with a chance.
Justice has been served. Ladies please stop this nonsense now. You wasted my money in the first battle and used others peoples for the last lost. We in west bay love the new road. Stop stop stop stop.
Yes yes yes and goodbye ladies!
Good…now move on
Will the 4 ladies and their supporters be voting for Mac in the next election?
Probably so.
And will you be supporting Dart in his future endevors?
17:35, yes I probably will as will most in Cayman.
Did you put up such a fight against developers when Caymanians sold all the land and they took away the entire view of SMB, other than the 2sec view these Ladies were fighing for?
Didn't think so.
I bet you also enjoy going to and from work each day on all the new roads?
And I bet you will vote for the Moron repsonsible for this entire mess in the next election because you will have conveniently forgotten everything he has done to harm this Country as usual.
Why? Because he gave you a new dryer.
Irony
"…closed door nature of the talks…"
Maybe the ladies should be suing McKeeva.
Why would they sue Mac? They will be voting for him in the next election.
Hopefully he is the only one that actually produces results..
Yes, but bad results. He is leading, but leading you over a cliff.
Results?? WHAT results?!
Great effort ladies – history wil commend you for being some of the last to stand up for Cayman!
14:04, What will history say when they turn around and vote for the man repsonsible for the whole mess in the next election?
Thanks for the Fridge/ paving/ whatever.
Thats what they will say.
So sad, Those in favour talk of what a fine road Dart has built, and for free. But, nothing is free, Dart got more than the cost of a road out of this deal, a lot more!
So, what you should all be asking is, WHY, did the politician concerned do it, and WHY did he do it behind doors?
You possibly possibly could commend, history will continue to show dinosaurs died out through ignorance, stupidity and failure to adapt.
Will it? Are the last people who fought for the earth being flat or being at the centre of the universe commended by history?
History is more likely to remember them for wasting time and legal aid..
This hole thing will be forgotten in a few months..
Which "hole" ?
Thank God I came to an end no more waste of money in court,you heard me finitoooooo
Thank God you came to an end.
It is not a technicality. It is a key safeguard to stop the public suffering from troublemakers bringing tardy claims to interfere on settled decisions.
Was it traded for a seat at the Casino table?
So near and yet so far…
They stood about as much chance as my schizophrenic last ex-wife had in finding my stash-of-cash…
The difference being that presumably your ex wife was entitled to the cash.
Touche!
Nope…
And the 'entitlement attitude' is the downfall of this country…
Praise be to Jesus.
It wasn me.
Thank the Lord!!! You could even see the beach before. NNow the developer can get on with his project and we caymanians will have an amazing water front path to walk with our families.
Most importantly the current beach side roads will be cleared of all that garbage lazy people leave behind.
Thank you judges
Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!
I sincerely hope this is the "end of the road" for this story. It's over…get over it…let's move on!
A very biased article.
You want to see bias? Did you read the article(s) in the local newstand publication RAG over the last two days? Especially the one that came out this morning? Like they say…Follow the Money………………………………………….
They've been biased on this topic from the start….negative stories attract attention.