I rise today to give my full support to the Public Parks and Beaches Authority Bill. As always, Madam President, as I begin my contribution, I remain thankful to my God, my dear wife and my family. I also remain thankful to my Prime Minister and our wonderful Bahamian people who continue to pray and encourage me in this capacity that I have offered to serve my Country.

This legislation marks another significant milestone in this Progressive Liberal Party government delivering on its covenant with the Bahamian people to improve every aspect of life of every person residing in this great Commonwealth. The Bill before this Honourable House seeks to establish a new entity called ‘the Public Parks and Beaches Authority’ which will be responsible for controlling, planning, designing, developing, administering, managing and maintaining public parks and public beaches designated by the Authority.

Madam President, in addition to its maintenance and development functions, the Authority is charged with conserving the public parks and beaches, and protecting objects and organisms of aesthetic historical or scientific interest. This new entity will therefore become the custodian of some of the most valuable realty in the Country. This will be in terms of the monetary value of the land as well as the invaluable social and cultural significance attached to the continued public use and ownership of our beaches and parks.

In presenting this piece of legislation, it is envisioned that this Bill and the new Authority will address several vexing issues, namely: (1) Securing and improving public accesses to beaches; (2) Maintaining, operating and developing beaches; and (3) Maintaining verges and roadsides.

As we look around our great Commonwealth, particularly New Providence, I believe every right thinking Bahamian would be saddened by the unfortunate reality that although we live in a land of undisputed beauty, much of that beauty is kept hidden from our people, to be seen from a distance. Madam President, by way of background under Bahamian Law, the land below the high water mark ordinarily vests in the Crown. I say ordinarily as there are a few exceptions to this rule such as seabed leases but almost always, the land whichis below the high water mark is owned by the Crown.

Unfortunately, although the Crown owns the shore, it does not own the adjoining land nor is there a Crown right of way, which significantly impedes access to our beaches. Take New Providence for example; each holiday as I drive around the island, I am saddened as I drive along the northern coast of New Providence where many of our beaches are positioned. If I begin my journey at this Honourable House and travel west,the first beach I will encounter is the stretch behind the British Colonial Hilton- beautiful beach but no public access. Continuing west the public largely has access to the beaches between Junkanoo Beach and Saunder’s Beach.

As you continue on West Bay Street past Saunder’s Beach, the public access ceases as the foreshore is occupied with various beach front homes and businesses. The only exception to this isthat portion in the area of ‘Go slow bend’. Thank God for that as this is perhaps the best vantage point to view the sun as it sets over the horizon – isn’t it beautiful? The next public access point is the Public Beach at Goodman’s Bay and thereafter the land between West Bay Street and the Sea is almost exclusively in private hands. The consequence of this is that between Goodman’s Bay and Clifton, there are almost no public parks adjoining public beaches.

Even Orange Hill! For years, I believed that the area in front of Orange Hill was public land only to see the beach front strips being advertised for sale to the highest bidder. These sales are possible as the land abutting the shore is in private hands. Imagine that, Orange Hill Beach is on the market.

Madam President, in looking at this Bill, specific provision is made for the Authority to secure from private land-owner’s rights of way over their private land to access beaches. I cannot underestimate or over-emphasize the importance of creating such rights of way. Before leaving the issue of beach access, it is important for us to realise that some of the most significant stretches of beaches on New Providence have been almost permanently severed from use by the Bahamian people through the canal networks, high walls and guard entries of some of our most prestigious gated communities.

Now Madam President, I am not in any way attacking those communities or the persons who reside in them. It is however, important that in looking at the issue of beach access, we look at the issue of public access to the miles of beaches which most of us can only see when taking off or arriving at the Lynden Pindling International Airport. In addition to its obligation to improve public access to beaches, the Authority will also be responsible for the maintenance and the licensing of any person who wishes to carry out a trade on any public beach (Western Esplanade).

Another public space which requires significant attention is the maintenance of the medians and verges of our public roads. One only has to drive around any roadway in The Bahamas to see the scale of the job ahead of the Authority.

If I may turn to New Providence, the issues here are two-fold: (1) The general difficulty of continuously mowing and keeping the brush and undergrowth under control; and (2) More disturbing, continuously cleaning up the litter and debris left and deposited by members of the public.

Madam President, I am constantly annoyed by the amount of debris and garbage which can be found on the roadsides of New Providence. It seems that as soon as a street is cleaned, some unscrupulous persons proceed to dump garbage on the roadsides. This litter may be as small as a bottle or plastic wrap or as large as an entire dumpster load of debris.Whatever the size, the consequence is the same. Resources have to be diverted to clean up the debris illegally dumped. Unfortunately, this illegal dumping is not confined to our verges and medians but also parks and other open spaces. As a matter of fact, many of our parks has become road-side garages – Yellow Elder, Big Pond, Elizabeth Estates, Fox Hill, Anns Town, and the list goes on.

It is my very strong and unwavering position to my Government that as we create this Authority, we also establish a Permanent Environmental Court to ensure ‘swift justice through continuous and sustained action.

Over the past decades, under various town planning regulations, dozens if not hundreds of parks and open spaces have been developed or reserved in subdivisions all over The Bahamas. As many residents around The Bahamas would have experienced, when you call the Ministry of Works or your local Member of Parliament, often times people don’t even know if it is a park or who is the owner. As a result of this, some of these areas often become overgrown and harbours criminal activity instead of parks and open spaces (e.g. Park in Nassau East North). Madam President, this may seem like a simple piece of legislation but it is much more than that…

I can take the Honorable Members of this Chamber to areas designated as parks but: (1) The designated area is a Blue-hole, sunken land and/or unfit and unsafe land to be used as a park; (2) The designated area has never been cleaned and therefore has mature coppice or ‘bush’; or (3) Homes and apartments have been built on the land designated as parks. But you know Madam President, our disrespect for such designated areas are much deeper as even graveyards has fallen prey to persons who are indifferent by constructing homes and apartments in them.

TALK ABOUT MY PARKS Under the provisions of this legislation, there will be one comprehensive framework which will adopt such areas and develop them into public parks. This will undoubtedly improve communities throughout The Bahamas by providing valuable open spaces and areas for recreation in our communities.

In establishing the Authority, it is hoped that having a centralised entity responsible for these spaces would increase our ability to govern and reserve our beaches, verges and parks,thereby improving their overall appearance. Madam President, this Bill will improve the control, maintenance and administration of our Parks, Beaches and Roadsides and the quality of life for All Bahamians. I fully support this Bill and wish the future Authority and those employed by it every success in its work.

May God continue to bless this great Commonwealth.