~ Entire French side paralysed by blockades ~
MARIGOT--It took more than an entire day, sixteen hours to be exact, for the Collectivité to give in to the people last night with a signed agreement to halt the urban planning zone PLU. During that time the French side came to a complete standstill, with no possibility of entering or exiting Marigot. Barricades also were erected in French Quarter, Grand Case and Oyster Pond.
The agreement between the Collectivité and the delegation was signed at 9:45pm. It concerned four demands: the Collectivité agreeing to annul the PLU deliberation of June 25, stopping the public enquiry, annulling the Executive Council decision pertaining to the “50 pas” pricing, and addressing respect for the district councils. The signing was delayed due to agreement on its wording and language.
The Agrément barricade was taken down first at 10:15pm, with others to follow suit.
“We are very satisfied with the outcome,” said delegation member Steven Patrick. “It should never have come to this. It could all have been clarified two years ago. I think the Collectivité was testing the people’s resolve and thought we would lose interest. But they underestimated us.”
Not until the arrival of First Vice-President Guillaume Arnell around 3:00pm, after stepping off a flight from Paris, was there any possibility that a settlement could be reached. The previous two meetings, the first of which was convened at 9:30am, with the then elected official in charge of the French side Vice-President Ramona Connor both ended in a deadlock.
The result of that led to spreading of the blockades to French Quarter, Grand Case, Oyster Pond and as far as closing down Grand Case Airport. Only ambulances, doctors and emergency vehicles were allowed through the barricades.
Arnell first met with the other Vice-Presidents, Director of General Services (DGS) Philippe Millon, MP Daniel Gibbs and independent Territorial Councillor Jules Charville in a closed session that lasted some two hours before he was ready to meet the delegation of protestors, a collective formed from various movements and associations.
“We will stop the public enquiry,” Arnell stated finally, as tension was building at the various blockades, while a request from Préfète Anne Laubies to let Gendarmes through the barricades to go to the airport apparently was first refused and then lifted. “We will also go back to all the district councils and take the time for you to understand the PLU with a simplified English version, let you have your input, and make a comparison with the former Plan Occupation de Sols (POS) and the PLU which I believe is necessary.
“Our building codes cannot be disconnected from the PLU and we may come to a new document, not named PLU, that will take into consideration the best elements of both documents and the building codes that could help this island protect land, environment and beaches. All the documents will be prepared in a simplified English version.”
Arnell told reporters afterwards that the downside of stopping the PLU process now meant investors would remain in a holding pattern, waiting perhaps a year or more to know what the zoning conditions are.
“The longer you keep investors waiting, the more risk they will go to other destinations,” he said.
On the “50 Pas Géometriques” Arnell said he would go back on this issue acknowledging the loopholes in it. The Executive Council decision of April 14 concerning pricing was cancelled as requested in the delegation’s demands.
The “50 pas” committee will set the pricing and as far as those families that have titles are concerned a sub-committee will be formed that will allow families to have their titles validated and not be asked to re-purchase the land.
The delegation had met earlier with Vice-Presidents Ramona Connor, Wendel Cocks and Rosette Gumbs-Lake in a failed attempt to find a speedy solution to the crisis.
The delegation did not accept Connor’s offer to go back to each district council with explanations of the PLU in English, thereby prolonging the process. She also did not come out and say she would halt the public enquiry, which led to a walkout. A second attempt at negotiation also failed.
“The talks broke down because they [the Collectivité – Ed.] did not come to negotiate; they came to sugar-coat,” fumed delegation member Sofia Carti. “We only have five days before the public enquiry is finished. There’s no way to explain the PLU to each district in that time.”
Asked what was unreasonable about prolonging the process, Carti said. “Prolonging doesn’t mean stop, it means we get 10 extra days, but the process won’t stop there.”
There were occasional heated exchanges in the hall between Connor and Daniella Jeffry, Ras Touza Jah Bash, and Jacques “Billy D” Hamlet.
Jeffry insisted on knowing why the PLU has agriculture as a “pillar of the economy” when everyone knows tourism is the acknowledged pillar of the economy.
Ras Touza Jah Bash said he probably had the most experience with agriculture and cultivating, yet if he found it difficult to make ends meet how would anyone else make it work, given that it is such a small industry already.
He questioned why special training and courses were not in place in the schools if agriculture is to be promoted. He added agriculture in the future would be driven more by technology, hydroponics and aquaponics, for example, and managed by foreigners, not by locals.
At one point “Billy D” Hamlet challenged the three Vice-Presidents to each explain what they understood the PLU to be about. There was no answer.
The protest was largely peaceful during the day, with Gendarmes maintaining a discreet presence, but there was nowhere near the “massive” turnout of people expected. There can be no denying that the simple act of putting a few garbage bins or a front-loader in the middle of the road has a devastating effect.
“The power of the people is always stronger than the people in power,” commented Economic Advisory Council CESC President Georges Gumbs, observing the protest. “Those who are in power must listen. This could have been defused long ago by talking to the people before and giving them what they want. They want to be allowed to build on their land and they are right. Now you have an escalation because they did not talk to the people and it is the fault of government.”
There was one unconfirmed report of a confrontation caused by Gendarmes trying to remove a barricade and another incident where a frustrated motorist with children in the car forced his way through a barricade, almost killing the people guarding the barricade.
It was also understood that Theo Heyliger had made a special request to let tourist buses through to go back to the ships.
Barricades were erected as early as 6:00am in Sandy Ground next to the bridge, in Lowtown, Rue Kennedy, the entrance to Marigot in Bellevue, and the Agrément roundabout.
