The Editor, Sir:

It pains me to hear of the constant push to get investments from developers who are looking to build 'high-end' villas and five or six-star hotels. This is especially a problem when it means that there will be yet another zoning off of what could have been good beaches available for locals. Why do consecutive governments continue to sell of our beaches? Is there any leader in Jamaica brave enough to stand up and say that there should be at least two or three world-class beach facilities in each parish for everyone to use free of cost?

Little sympathy

They say the hotels need the beaches for the tourists who enjoy our beaches and give us jobs, but it is not all tourists who want to have to stay at these hotels in order to enjoy the best beaches in Jamaica. When in opposition, Mr Golding made reference to Barbados' policy of all beaches having public access paths. I had really hoped that he would have made a push to change the law in Jamaica if elected prime minister. Both he and his Tourism Ministry have disappointed in this respect.

With respect to the recent theft of beach sand in Trelawny, while I am sorry that a good beach has been damaged by criminals, I do not sympathise with the potential hotel developers who have 'lost sand for their beach'. As long as more and more "quarter miles of the most beautiful white-sand beach anyone could find in the world" continue to be sold (not even leased) to strangers, then I have little sympathy for them.

Good beach

My suggestion is that the beaches be a separate entity from the hotels. The hotels pay for maintenance of certain parts of the beach nearest to their property if they want to ensure that their guests have access to a good beach, but let the locals have access to what is rightfully our own. This works in many countries, both in the Caribbean as well as Pacific islands.

I am, etc.,

LOUIS-RAY HARRIS

louisrayharris@yahoo.com