at heart of Constitution dispute
January 30, 2000
By Sandra Chiuthi
The $662m hotel fallout.
T he stalling of a five-star, ultra-luxury US$105 (TT$661.5) million Four Seasons Hotel and Resort chain hotel to be built in Tobago is at the heart of the constitutional impasse between Prime Minister Basdeo Panday and President Arthur NR Robinson.
Finance Minister Brian Kuei Tung had announced in the 1998/1999 Budget presentation that the premiere Four Seasons Hotel and Resort chain was negotiating with the Government for the development of an integrated tourism resort complex on 344 acres of land in Tobago.
But the project, which is said to have received Panday's personal endorsement, has been stalled by the refusal of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) to give its approval.
This was confirmed by THA Chief Secretary, Hochoy Charles, who in a 66-minute interview with TV6 aired last week, said that the project has had to be stopped.
"Our experience in Tobago with respect to the construction of hotels and the sort of environmental problems that can be created would have informed us to deal with those situations in a particular way," Charles said.
The Four Seasons Hotel project, Charles said, "had the potential of destroying the environment, destroying our Buccoo Reef, destroying all of that, and I know the Government in Trinidad wanted it to go (on). I know of the King's Bay one, the hotel that somebody wanted to construct there. We had to move in to stop the construction so that the environmental impact assessment (EIA) could have been done so we could make sure we do not negatively affect the environment".
The current stand-off between Panday and Robinson has arisen out of the THA's objection to Clause 11 in the Tourism Development (No 2) Bill which seeks to remove final approval on Tourism projects away from the THA and into the hands of the Tourism Minister.
Charles said the Bill had been introduced to circumvent the THA's objections to the projects.
But Housing and Settlements Minister John Humphrey, contacted in Parliament two Fridays ago, stated that to the best of his knowledge, Charles had not stopped the Four Seasons Hotel project from proceeding.
Humphrey's response came after this journalist passed to him no less than three formal notes requesting information about plans to construct the hotel in Tobago.
Asked if the Town and Country Planning Division (TCPD) had approved plans for the construction of the hotel, Humphrey wrote: "Outline planning permission for Four Seasons project was given by the TCPD."
A source close to the Town and Country Review Committee, however, which comprises representatives from Town and Country, Environment Tobago, the Environmental Management Authority (EMA), the Institute of Marine Affairs (IMA), the Archeological Committee, and the Crusoe Reef Society, said that all its members "unanimously turned it down".
The source said that the documents, which purported to be an EIA, were deemed "insufficient".
"They had no designs for the development on which any detailed comment could be made. Four Seasons got hung up on whether it got a good EIA," the source said. "It was John Humphrey who insisted that outline approval would be given and he did sign against all opposition. Town and Country turned down their (investors') submission, but it was overruled by the minister," the source said.
The proposal is to build a first-class hotel on the 500-acre Golden Grove Estate, which belongs to the family of the late Frank Latour of Golden Grove. Latour is survived by three sisters: Marion, Marcelle, and Charm.
"Their father, Frank, now dead, farmed it throughout his lifetime," the source said. "Tidco had earmarked it as a good site for a small hotel, probably about 40-50 rooms."
The Tourism Master Plan was very influential in changing plans for major tourism development in Tobago. The plan recommended that only up to 250 rooms in three to four more hotels be built in southwest Tobago, that is, from Plymouth to Scarborough to Crown Point.
"It identified that in other parts of the island where you have eco projects, that you can't have large projects because the topography is not conducive to large-scale development," the source said. "Therefore, southwest Tobago was the only part of the island which could have large development.
Some say it's over-developed: you have Le Grand Courland, Grafton Beach Resort, Coco Reef, Turtle Beach, and Mount Irvine. That's about five or six miles from end to end. Each hotel has about 130 rooms. Golden Grove is in southwest Tobago."
Town and Country had previously refused investors' proposals to build on the "spit of sand" and mangrove that surround the Bon Accord lagoon at No Man's Land. The source said Town and Country refused permission to build on the site, which has a "fabulous view", because it had been determined that no permanent structure be erected on the sand to protect the lagoon.
If the estate is badly developed, it will destroy the mangrove and the lagoon, which is a breeding ground for fish; the mangrove cleans run-off water from the land into the sea, it "scrubs" the water, the source said.
"The reef is just outside of the lagoon. Rather than destroy the most famous sites on the island, the THA stepped in."
A small development project would preserve the natural environment, but the source said: "Small does not pay back what a big developer would want.
"That's why they went for the density of 900 rooms to make it viable. It's only by selling land and villas you make money. A hotel does not make money for some time."
Despite the setback, the source said, Four Seasons has not given up on the project.
Allan Clovis, the owner of Kariwak Village Hotel at Crown Point, Tobago, said the Government and Charles, under whose authority planning falls, were both extreme in each wanting the absolute right to decide on projects in Tobago.
"Both ends are extreme. We're dealing with a collective thing and I am certainly not in favour of people coming in here and doing what they want," Clovis said. "I am in agreement of a collective body that will, in a rational way, have criteria for determining approvals for projects."