Young: No Man's Land to be enhanced for public use

Communications Minister Stuart Young says the proposed Sandals and Beaches resort would not be built on No Man’s Land in Buccoo but facilities would be added to enhance the area for public use.

Speaking with reporters following a tour of the site and a closed-door meeting by a Government and Sandals team on Tuesday at the office of Buccoo/ Golden Grove project, Young said

“I want to take this opportunity to emphasise again and I did actually walk on No Man’s Land… this project will not be constructed on No Man’s Land.

“It was actually quite useful to walk on it and we’re discussing how we can enhance it for the public and make sure that it is properly upkept and the kind of facilities that can be added to the No Man Lands area, in terms of just enhancing it for public access and public usability,” he said.

Deputy Chairman of Sandals, Adam Stewart also spoke of enhancing No Man’s Land for public use, including visitors. Said Stewart:

“We spoke about how we can enhance it (No Man’s Land) for the wider public, how we can help maintain it and how most importantly how we can fuel it with visitors.

Stewart also mentioned what he described as unsightly water seen during the tour by the Government/Sandals team of which he was part, saying that Sandals Group stands ready to help with such issues.

“The water run off, drainage, anything that could be unsightly or unsanitary in and amongst the community, we can take that water, we can push it through our water treatment plants and turn it into what they call grey water, to water either the golf course or the landscaping. There are many, many win wins that can be done,” he said.

Asked if the stand of mangrove in the Buccoo/Holden Grove area be affected by the construction of the resort, Stewart said: “We don’t know as yet, there is mangrove on the site and we know that it is a highly protected area and the environmentalists are aware (of this). In any development that you do, a tree or something must be affected, whether it is residential, housing, it’s a school you’re building… we understand the sensitivity surrounding the land.