Graeme Hall talks by month-end

MOVES TO SETTLE the dispute with owners of the troubled Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary in Christ Church are expected to start towards month-end.

However, Government believes the law court is not the best place to tackle the problems of the tourist attraction that has closed its doors to the public.

Minister of the Environment, Water resources and Drainage, Denis Lowe, made these disclosures yesterday.

He was commenting on news that the owner of the reserve, Canadian Peter Allard, claimed Barbados consistently failed to meet its obligations to the sanctuary under a Barbados-Canada agreement.

Allard, through the Ottawa law firm McMillan LLP, has given notice of a dispute between the two sides and of his intention to seek compensation for "substantial losses".

"Any assessment that blames the Government for anything would have to take into account the fact that this Government has only been in place for less than two years," Lowe told reporters at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre where he was attending the 4th General Meeting Of The Association of Caribbean Electoral Organisations.

"But if there are issues at the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary they cannot be settled in the law court. They would have to be settled on the ground . . . ."

Lowe said that was why he believed the way forward was to engage in "a productive cooperative series of talks" about the sanctuary's problems.

"The Cabinet has supported a number of decisions to continue to advance our support for the Nature Sanctuary and in very short despatch, I will be convening a multi-sectoral committee that will be working towards assisting us in putting a system in place," he added. With "a couple of key persons" now off the island, Lowe anticipated the meeting would be convened "within the next three weeks or so".

In a document released by Allard and his lawyers, the developer said, among other things, that Government had failed to prevent the Barbados Water Authority "from repeatedly discharging raw sewage and other effluent" into the wetlands from its South Coast Sewage Treatment facility.

He also alleged that Government had failed to "repair, maintain or adequately operate" structures into the Greame Hall wetlands that regulate water levels, mosquito infestations "and the biologic health of the wetland". (TY)