‘There is no such thing as Beach Access Act, Sophia’
AINSWORTH MORRIS / Our Today
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As a champion for the environment, one would expect that Sophia Frazer Binns, Shadow Minister of Environment and Ecological Heritage from the People’s National Party (PNP), would know that Jamaica has no Beach Access Act among its legislation.
But, during her address on Saturday, August 23, at the Jamaica Debates Commission’s debate with representatives from both the PNP and Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), where she was asked, Many Jamaicans are concerned about the limited access to beaches and the costs that apply to them. What measures will you put in place to ensure that Jamaicans have greater access to their beaches?
Frazer Binns said, “What are we going to do now? We’re going to ensure that the provisions in the Beach Access Act come to life, and where the amendment needs to be made, we’re going to do that.”
In his rebuttal to this point, Samuda countered that Jamaica doesn’t have a Beach Access Act.
“There isn’t a Beach Access Act, as was mentioned, but there is a Beach Control Act [of 1956],” Samuda confidently said.
For her response, Frazer Binns also stated that over the last nine years, there have been numerous instances, for example, at Mammee Bay Fisherman’s Beach and Bob Marley Beach, where Jamaicans have been denied access.
“For us in the People’s National Party, access to beach is not an option, it is a right. And, because of that, we will ensure that all Jamaicans have access to our beaches. We have done it before,” Frazer Binns said. “In our last administration, we spent over $12 billion rehabilitating Winnie Fred Beach, Priory Beach. We’ve done it already. We’re going to do it again.”
In rebutting this point, Samuda said the people of St James know that all that Frazer Binns said was a fallacy.
He reminded her that the PNP took away Cornwall Beach from the people of St. James “without a care in the world”, and it was the JLP that built the Harmony Beach Park over Dump Up Beach to give the people of St. James beach access back.
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