Simpson Bay:--- Members and supporters of the St. Maarten Pride Foundation are calling on the Minister of Environmental Affairs and VROMI Theo Heyliger to instruct the Inspection Department to execute their duties and stop all illegal construction on the public beaches. The members of PRIDE foundation took members of the media to Simpson Bay Beach on Monday morning to point out another illegal construction which is taking place less than 50 meters from the water line. Jadira Veen, President of the St. Maarten Pride Foundation said that enough is enough and while the Inspection Department is telling them they know how to do their work, the illegal construction is still taking place.Veen said some two months ago they pointed out to the Inspection Department that there was illegal construction taking place at the Character beach. She said it has been two months since a work-stop was issued for the illegal construction and to date the illegal structure is still standing on the beach.
Ruben Thompson said the illegal construction on the beach is now becoming the norm and they are not getting responses from the emails they sent to the Inspection Department. However, on Monday morning a male information that seems to be working with someone inside VROMI was caught taking photographs of the PRIDE Foundation members and the reporters on scene.
The culprit also called someone and shortly after an email was sent from the head of inspections Henry Ellis to the St. Maarten Pride Foundation which stated that the illegal construction on Simpson Bay Beach was halted way before their press release in the media. "All legal measures are taken to prevent any further illegal construction on this location," Ellis said. Ruben Thompson said while Ellis said legal actions are being taken within the Ministry and that a work-stop was issued, he knows work was done on the structure late last week. Besides that the inspector did not indicate what actions government intends to take with the structure that is currently standing on the beach even though it is a hazard during the hurricane season. While Ellis said government is taking the necessary measures to halt other illegal constructions he did not say what measures they intend to take to remove the one that is currently under construction.
Both Thompson and Veen said that there are no more beach spaces for the locals to take their children. Thompson said the spot where the illegal construction is currently taking place is a spot that turtles have nested in the past. He said turtles are endangered and protected species and they tend to go back to the places they nested before. Also on the site was huge wooden deck that is also built on the beach. Further up there is a concrete house that is directly on the shoreline. Veen said in the early 1990's she remembered signing a petition to stop the construction of the house since it was dividing the beach, but government she said did nothing about it back then and the PRIDE Foundation was not existing at the time, neither was there a beach policy.
Thompson also called on government and the people of St. Maarten to keep a watchful eye on Mullet Bay beach. He said Mullet Bay is the only beach that is left with sufficient parking and greenery and while the demolition of the ruins are currently underway, the people he said has to watch out for these investors who simply do not have respect for the people and their beaches which are all public.
Thompson also lashed out at the Parliamentarians who have not addressed the issue in Parliament. He said just recently there was a huge fire on the dump which is health hazardous and the Parliamentarians have remained mum on the issue even though they all know how dangerous the dump fires are to human beings.
Click here to view more photos of the Illegal Construction on Simpson Bay Beach.