The Editor, Sir:

In the cover story of Sunday, January 21, 'Hotel boom - 600-room resort opened in St. Ann', your Senior Tourism Writer, Janet Silvera, says, "Dogged by a series of calamities, the resort became famous after Jamaican environmentalists took the owners to court which revoked their environmental permit."

In an earlier article ('2006 year in review - great milestones in tourism,' published January 9, 2007) Ms. Silvera wrote that the hotel's "numerous calamities were compounded after environmentalists took the owners to court and had their environmental permit revoked. However, Grupo Piñero stood its ground, won its day in court and welcomed its first set of European visitors this winter tourist season."

For the record, in November 2005, two environmental groups, Northern Jamaica Conservation Association (NJCA) and Jamaica Environment Trust (JET), and four individuals filed a judicial review lawsuit in the Supreme Court against two Government agencies, the National Environ-ment and Planning Agency (NEPA) and the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA).

Had day in court

The NJCA/JET court case was not against the owners or developers of the Bahía Príncipe, although the latter did have 'their day in court' when they appealed the outcome of the case.

The applicants sought judicial review of the decision by NEPA and NRCA to grant an environmental permit to Hoteles Jamaica Piñero Limited (HOJAPI) for Phase One of the Bahía Príncipe project, to construct 734 rooms of the planned 1,918 rooms.

In his May 16, 2006 judgement, Justice Bryan Sykes quashed the environmental permit and ordered NEPA to reconsider HOJAPI's application.

NJCA and JET would also like to make it quite clear that at no time was there any legal hindrance to the construction process occasioned by the judicial review lawsuit.

From the first judgement to the final ruling five weeks later, the judge maintained a stay on the revocation of the permit to allow for construction to continue during the appeals process.

All reports attributing a 'temporary halt' on construction to this court action are, therefore, incorrect.

We are, etc.,

Wendy A. Lee

Executive Director, Northern

Jamaica Conservation

Association

Diana McCaulay

CEO, Jamaica

Environment Trust