MPs during the meeting.
PHILIPSBURG--Members of Parliament (MPs) on Thursday sought answers on issues related to the protection of the country’s beaches, development at the Mullet Bay beach and protection of the environment.
The MPs posed their questions in a meeting of Parliament’s Petitions Committee where Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (TEATT) Leo Lambriex and Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI Egbert Doran were present.
In giving some background information, Committee Chairperson Angelique Romou said Parliament had received a petition from Nina Bijnsdorp with 2,760 residents’ signatures on April 7, 2022, regarding objections and recent and future developments on Mullet Bay beach.
Parliament’s Petitions Committee met in a closed-door session on Tuesday, June 14, 2022 where it was determined that the petition and the request were in accordance with the Petitions Committee’s guidelines. Letters were sent to the VROMI and TEATT Ministries on June 20, 2022, along with a copy of the petition. The Petitions Committee asked for VROMI’s and TEATT’s positions on the petition. The ministers had six weeks to respond.
On August 10, 2022, Bijnsdorp requested an update from the committee, which responded on September 1, 2022, indicating that the request had been forwarded to the ministers and a response had not been received as of that date.
The VROMI Minister responded on September 22. Romou said that as the committee had not received any feedback from the TEATT Minister, it had been decided to invite the ministers to Parliament to provide their feedback.
Here to listen
When he was given the floor, Lambriex said he was in Parliament to listen, as he is a new minister. “As everyone knows, I am newly in office so I am here mostly to gather what the questions and the concerns are before I can give any responses. So, that is my position at the moment. So, I am here to listen,” Lambriex said.
The floor was then given to MPs to ask their questions.
Party For Progress (PFP) MP Melissa Gumbs said that while she is not a member of the committee, she considered it important to attend. Gumbs thanked Lambriex for answering her first question which was whether information had been passed on to him.
Alluding to an amendment to the beach and vending policy done in 2012 that was signed off/ratified by then-Minister of TEATT Ted Richardson in 2014, she asked whether there had been a public consultation prior to the decision on this amendment being made. She asked Lambriex for his thoughts on conducting a public consultation prior to amending or establishing policies related to public domain, like beaches.
“A concrete way of protecting Mullet Bay Beach from further development and encroachment on public space would be to amend policies related to it once more to enact a sort of moratorium, wherein only the current three establishments that are there are allowed, and where stricter regulations for beach chair placement, music volume and lights at night are established.,” said Gumbs. “This is, of course, to protect the wildlife, in particular the turtles that build and hatch their nests on the beach.
“Could both ministers share if they have begun discussions regarding this possible solution between their respective ministries?” she asked
She also enquired how many establishments on Mullet Bay (and other public beaches) pay rent to government for use of the space on the public beach to construct and operate their establishments, whether the establishments on the beach are currently in compliance with the terms of their rental agreements, how much establishments on Mullet Bay (and other public beaches) pay in rent to the government for the use of public land/beach to construct and operate their establishments and when were these prices last revised, amongst other questions.
United Democrats (UD) MP Sarah Wescot-Williams said that while the VROMI minister had provided answers to the objections filed by Bijnsdorp in September 2022, the answers were not provided to the petitioners or scrutinised by Parliament’s Petitions Committee. Calling this remarkable, Wescot-Williams told The Daily Herald that Thursday’s meeting had been misleading because Parliament had received a response to the objections and the meeting should have been one where the VROMI minister was grilled on the answers that had been provided.
She asked during the meeting how it is that the TEATT Minister attended Thursday’s meeting to “listen” and whether the objection had been shared with the TEATT ministry.
She asked Lambriex to share his “100-day plan” which he had announced in the media and asked for information on TEATT’s priorities. She also asked how article 5:26 of the civil code on beaches is being adhered to; what is the true picture of permits granted for Mullet Bay Beach; and whether the Philipsburg beach had been given any attention after the ministers’ walk-through.
The VROMI committee of parliament had requested a meeting with the minister regarding the Acrobatx presentation. There has not been a response to date and the VROMI Minister is yet to return to respond to questions regarding the spatial development of the country, hillside policy and the status of zoning plans and the “Great Bay development.”
Wescot-Williams concluded that many outstanding issues regarding development are just skirted.
Independent MP Ludmila Duncan said the meeting was about overdevelopment, environmental protection and beaches.
She asked for government’s philosophy as it concerns the protection and development of Mullet Bay and other beaches; whether there are inter-ministerial working groups or discussions as it concerns the balance between economic development and environmental protection; how many permits had been given for the establishment of businesses on the Mullet Bay beach; and whether government would consider the execution of a national environmental survey to understand what Mullet Bay and other beaches mean to the public.
National Alliance (NA) MP George Pantophlet asked how often controls are done on the beaches to ensure that persons are operating and functioning in accordance with what has been stipulated in their permits. He also asked, if controls are done, who makes the reports, to whom are the reports submitted and whether any fines were levied.
He asked later in the meeting what Parliament and government can do regarding persons needing to ask permission to visit a beach, noting that he is concerned with the situation that persists when one wants to go to the beach at Divi Little Bay.
United People’s (UP) party MP Sidharth “Cookie” Bijlani asked how the decision to approve the development at the Mullet Bay beach had been made, what criteria were considered in the decision-making process, what government’s plan is to ensure that the Mullet Bay development does not harm the environment and local community, what measures are in place to ensure that the developers are held accountable for the negative impact of the development and how government will balance the economic benefits of the Mullet Bay development with the concerns raised by local residents and enviro groups.
He also enquired what role government sees in public participation in the Mullet Bay development and how public input will be taken into account; how will government ensure that the Mullet Bay development aligns with the country’s long-term sustainable development goals, what lessons government had learnt from previous development projects in St. Maarten and how these lessons will be applied to the Mullet Bay development, amongst other questions.
PFP MP Raeyhon Peterson asked whether any additional licences had been issued for Mullet Bay since 2019 or 2018 and for what type of businesses. He said the intention had been for the licences issued in 2018 or 2019 to be the last licences to avoid the situation that exists today.
De Weever asked the ministers whether they understood why the objection was made in the first place. She said it was because Mullet Bay was the largest patch of sandy beach remaining on the island where turtle nesting was still happening and this was being encroached on. She said the objection was to protect the community.
She said that as Lambriex is new he perhaps needs to do more digging into what matters in the community, which is sustainable development. She urged him to have a meaningful conversation with the people. She also pointed out that the biggest cheerleaders for Mullet Bay did not attend the meeting.
Romou said the minister has agreed to respond to the questions in writing and the meeting will be reconvened as soon as time permits.
