Royal water supply

by MARIA BRADSHAW

NOT A DROP of water from the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) will be used to service the 18-hole golf course to be constructed by Royal Westmoreland.

That's because owner of the St James resort John Morphet, who purchased the Lancaster sugar plantation where the new golf course is to be built, will also construct a reservoir that can hold 60 million gallons of water.

The reservoir will service the new golf course as well as the existing one at Royal Westmoreland, St James.

"One of our biggest issues was the water issue. We had environmental studies conducted and we decided to take the route to build our own reservoir to capture the water which usually goes into the gully and then out to sea," Morphet told the SUNDAY SUN in an exclusive interview.

He also gave his assurance that there would be no chance of chemicals or pollutants entering or leaving Royal Westmoreland.

Natural-looking

Furthermore, he said the reservoir would be "more natural-looking" than the dam built at Farmers, St Thomas, that services the Apes Hill golf and polo project.

Morphet, a British billionaire who bought Royal Westmoreland five years ago, is also hoping to get Town Planning Department approval to build a 100-room hotel, also at Lancaster.

"We have given it serious consideration. There is no hotel on Highway 2 - all the hotels are gone. But the location is good because it would have a Caribbean [Sea] view and it's very accessible without going onto the busy Highway 1. The big pull for the hotel will be the golf course," he said, adding that too many hotels on the island were being converted into condominiums.

Plans are also in the pipeline for what he called "a village-type concept" with townhouses and boutique shops for local retailers.

Morphet said that only local contractors would be employed to work on this multimillion-dollar project with 300 jobs to be created in the development of the golf course over a ten-year period and 100 permanent positions to be added to their staff of 300 at Royal Westmoreland.

Please see Page 10A.