by ROY R. MORRIS

NOT ONE SQUARE FOOT of concrete has been poured yet, but already the developers of the Freshwater Bay, the tourism complex on the site of the old Paradise Beach Hotel, is angering Barbadians by the score.

Most of the sprawling site has been cleared of just about every piece of vegetation, stretching all the way to the boundaries of the National Conservation Commission (NCC) maintained Batts Rock Beach Park.

Over the past two weeks the NATION'S newsroom has been inundated with calls from Barbadians concerned about the removal of scores of mature trees and the presence of numerous tree trunks scattered across the construction site.

Freshwater Bay is a multi-million dollar luxury tourism project that will feature more than 58 residential luxury villas and 38 upscale club villas for rent, ringing a 125-room hotel to be operated by Four Seasons, on 30 acres of land housing a number of ancillary services, including restaurants, a world-class 30 000-square-foot spa and water sports facilities.

However, Mike Pemberton, of Pemberton Holdings Limited, one of the principal investors in the project, told the WEEKEND NATION yesterday that Barbadians had nothing to worry about.

"We have removed no trees without the permission of the Town Planning Department," he said.

However, he disclosed that many of the trees that had disappeared had not been destroyed, but had been carefully removed to a temporary nursery at Clifton Plantation, St Thomas, where almost 20 000 more plants had been under cultivation for about two years in preparation for transfer to the Paradise site once heavy construction was completed.

A WEEKEND NATION check of the more than 12-acre Clifton Plantation site revealed that scores of 30- to 40-year-old palm trees that had been shifted from Black Rock, were growing in a carefully controlled environment, along with thousands more Golden, Christmas, Foxtail and other palms at varying stages of growth.

In fact, Phil Edwards of Exotic Palms, the person selected by Pemberton to prepare the vegetation for the project, disclosed that 57 varieties of palms were under cultivation.

Several hundred coconut trees are also under cultivation at the St Thomas site to be transplanted later to create a special environment on the beach front of the hotel complex. A large number of Flamboyant and Mahogany trees are also under cultivation for later use at Freshwater Bay.

Additionally, Pemberton said it was the intention of Freshwater Bay to work with the NCC to significantly upgrade the Batts Rock Beach area for the benefit of all Barbadians.

"I have been involved in a number of projects in Barbados and I have no intention of doing anything in this one to hurt the reputation that I have developed," Pemberton said. "All Barbadians will be proud of what we have done at Paradise when we are finished."

* roymorris@nationnews.com