The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

REVEREND C B Moss yesterday accused officials at the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture of a “deliberate distortion of the facts” surrounding the process to protect the Clifton area.

Rev Moss, president of the Coalition to Save Clifton, is upset about the portrayal of the events to save Clifton Bay in a recent edition of the Bahamas Ambassador Magazine (BAAM).

At a press conference at his Yoruba House office yesterday, Rev Moss also lambasted members of the Christie administration as he suggested that some officials have done all they could to take complete credit for the environmental crusade.

Rev Moss, in an effort to show the “absolute seriousness” of the matter ripped out a four-page section of the magazine which he claimed gave people credit for something they had little to do with – the quest to protect the Clifton area from ruin.

Grasping pages of the magazine Rev Moss said: “It is farce, it is untrue, everything these pages discussed gave credit to a group of men that did very little for a cause that they claim they believed in so much.

“How does someone talk about the work to protect Clifton land, park and the waters surrounding it and not attribute that effort to the struggle and success of the Coalition (to Save Clifton)? How does one do that? There is no mention of C B Moss, no mention of all the men and women that saw this need and worked tirelessly to make this dream a reality.

“On February 3, 1999, a government sponsored town meeting was held at the St Paul Catholic Church Hall, outside the gate at Lyford Cay, when plans for the creation of a private gated community at Clifton Point was first presented to the public.

“The high-end and exclusive development would comprise approximately 600 homes on the over 600 acres, with the land being crisscrossed by finger canals. The entire area, including the beaches would be off limits to Bahamians. This proposal was not only unacceptable and intolerable, it was viewed as an insult to Bahamians by most of those in attendance at the meeting as the site was considered priceless for historic, cultural, social, archaeological, and security reasons.

“The following day yours truly invited some of the persons who attended the meeting to come together and on February 8, 1999, five-days after the town meeting, the Coalition To Save Clifton was formed to preserve and protect Clifton Point for the benefit of residents and visitors to the Bahamas for generations to come. It was at this point that the coalition proposed to the government that the site be transformed into land and sea park.

“The government entered into this discussion nearing the conclusion. The battle was long and hard, sometimes brutal, but after four years the coalition, supported by a number of groups and an array of residents and non-residents was finally successful and the new government by an act of Parliament established the land park with a promise to later add the surrounding coastal waters, creating a land and sea park. That is what happened.”

Rev Moss said his organisation wants an apology and a retraction from the government for not including the coalition’s actions in the magazine article.

He also urged the government to move with haste to establish a protected sea park in the Clifton area to preserve the “great asset.”

“Clifton belongs to the Bahamian people and no part of it, land nor sea, should be harnessed or utilised in any way that will deprive the people of the full and free use of this great asset, and we call upon the government to establish the sea park without delay, thereby completing this tremendously important project for the people,” he said.

Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Dr Danny Johnson could not be reached for comment.