The Tribune

By ED FIELDS

Former SVP Public Affairs, Atlantis

The Cabbage Beach Story is a complicated one and has been building to where it is for a very long time. My recounting of events below is just that, a history to the best of my recollection.

I first became aware of the Cabbage Beach Vendors in 2003. There was some sort of altercation on the beach and in my capacity then as Vice President of Public Affairs at Atlantis, we came to understand that the Ministry of Tourism was issuing licences to vendors for a range of purposes including hair braiding, selling drinks and renting umbrellas and chairs. At that time, if I recall, there were only 23 vendors.

Apparently, the Ministry of Tourism was under the impression that Cabbage Beach was a public Beach. It was not. In fact there is no publicly owned property on Paradise Island, other than where the bridge landing is, which had to be conveyed to the government of The Bahamas for that purpose.

Under the laws of The Bahamas, any beach up to the median high water mark is owned by the property owner who owns the land that abuts that beach. Hence public baches like Saunders Beach, Montague Beach, Goodman’s Bay, Junkanoo Beach and others are public beaches.

In and around 2003, I met with the Ministry of Tourism and the Valuation Department (now the Department of Inland Revenue) on behalf of Atlantis and it was agreed that we would grandfather the 23 vendors that had been conducting on the beach for several years and that the Ministry of Tourism and the Valuation Department would not issue any more licences to allow for vending on Cabbage Beach. Any person wishing to do business on the beach had to have a letter from Atlantis allowing it. As is the case now, anyone seeking a business licence must show ownership or a lease.

In 2012, another altercation happened on Cabbage Beach and it was then discovered that contrary to the agreement, officers at the Ministry of Tourism had issues more licences and the number of vendors had ballooned to 41.

After intense negotiations Atlantis agreed to grandfather those 41 vendors under the condition that each vendor had to sign an agreement outlining a code of conduct and that they recognised that the owner of the property had the right  to give the notice to vacate. The agreement was signed by all of the vendors.

I recall standing on the beach and saying to the vendors they should be aware that a day would come when the property could be sold and the new owners would wish to develop it void of vendor activity.

In 2015 or so, the property was sold as a part of the package that included the sale of the Ocean Club. The new owners immediately indicated that they would wish to develop the property in the future.

All of the vendors were served a notice to vacate as the property was sold on the basis of vacant possession. Once the period of notice expired, a fence and gate was erected.  What ensued in the way of protest culminated in the march over the bridge to the RIU access to Cabbage Beach, led by the then Delaporte MP and later to become Prime Minister. The fence was torn down.

Just after the 2017 election, a sexual assault was reported on Cabbage Beach and the beach was closed down. This led to protest by the vendors. It should be noted that between the time that the fence was torn down and when it was closed in 2017 after the sexual assault, additional vendors had populated the beach. When it was reopened, without consultation, consent or knowledge of the new owners, an increased number of vendors were given permission to be on the beach by the Ministry of Tourism.

Another vey important point to take note of is that the access to Beach adjacent to RIU was always allowed by permission of the owner and it was primarily for access for recreational beach activity. The public debate on access has always conflated access for recreation with access for commercial activity.

So here we are now, the developers wish to develop, the vendors wish to vend and as both parties have been given permission to conduct business, the quagmire persists.