by Linda Straker
- Levera Hotel Development to be included as “interested party” to Grenada Land Actors claim
- Range Developments and Mt Hartman Development applied to become defendants
- GLA yet to update its website about outcome of first hearing
High Court Judge in St George’s, His Lordship, the Hon. Justice Raulston Glasgow, on Thursday, 24 June 2021 upheld an application by lawyers for one of the 3 major hotel developments identified in a claim filed by the Grenada Land Actors Inc., as “a party of Interest” under section 56 of the Court Procedure Rules.
The Levera Hotel Development, the Judge determined, presented sufficient evidence to be included as an “interested party” to the claim as filed by the Grenada Land Actors (GLA) Inc , a recently registered non-government organisation.
GLA instituted legal claim against the Planning and Development Authority of Grenada in the High Court. Retired Justice, Rita L Joseph-Olivetti, is the Legal Consultant for the grouping. The Planning and Development Authority is represented by the Attorney General’s Chambers.
The claim was for Judicial Review against the Planning and Development Authority (the Authority) concerning its decisions regarding planning permissions granted to the 3 mega tourism developments.
A Judicial Review claim is a specific type of legal action that enables a person or group to ask the Court to review decisions taken by a public body. In this case, the public body is the Planning and Development Authority, a statutory body established under section 5 of the Physical Planning and Development Control Act 2016. The Authority is responsible for implementation of the Act.
Two other developments, namely Range Developments which is constructing the Six Senses Hotel La Sagesse in St David, and Mt Hartman Development, filed an application to become a defendant to the matter.
None of the hotel developments were named in the original claim, however, they see themselves as interested parties and made applications under section 56 and Part 19 of the Court Procedure Rules.
Following arguments from legal counsels, for the two which filed under Part 19 of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR), the Judge adjourned the matter so that Range Developments and Mt Hartman Development can provide the Court with justification for them to be included as defendants in the matter.
GLA is yet to update its website about the outcome of the first hearing and an email seeking an update stated that they are still gathering the information.
If the government would follow it’s own regulations and treat communities and our shared environment with the lawful respect, we deserve, these issues wouldn’t have to go to the court in the first place. The government and by extension the developers had enough time to engage earnestly and sensibly with the environmental and social concerns raised from various quarters of society. Time and again they choose to fob off the general public and play besties with developers. When for whatever reason they fall out of favor, we get left with costly suits before the World Bank (i.e. Grenlec, Kawana Bay, etc) and scars on the landscape. Upholding a transparent and accountable legal framework is a safeguard for everyone – environment, communities, Government and developers included. If you want proper development, you also need a functioning legal framework and enforcement. Riding rough-shot over our collective coastal natural assets isn’t development, it’s a self-enrichment scheme for a few at the long-term expense of the nation. How about we don’t take a lead from the most corrupt and business unfriendly places, and perhaps look at a country like Costa Rica, which has become a poster child for eco-tourism in the region. There is no reason Grenada can’t do better than excavating big holes and pouring in unimaginative concrete blocks. These things don’t age well. Will look cheap in 10yrs time and virtually undermine our Pure Grenada Spice Isle brand. Let’s use some smarts please and don’t allow everything that is unique and beautiful about us to be bulldozed by corner-cutting, dilletant development.
Well put. Pure Grenada my a__.
Grande Anse has become a honky tonk.
Or worse. Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Cry, the beloved country.
What next? Why we do business without all this stress with legal cost suffocating the whole project.
We (Grenada) have lost so much money with previous projects in this area and now we have going through we now have to deal with this case.