A marina in Carlisle Bay mere folly

REMARKABLE COINCIDENCES, with wonderful effects unforeseen by the engineers, attended the creation of a Coast Guard harbour at Oistins and the Hilton Barbados jetty.

In the first instance the Coast Guard harbour, filled with sand, created “Miami Beach” as collateral.

In the second case, the beach along Carlisle Bay was “mysteriously” widened while the impermeable jetty was rendered unserviceable.

Spurious superstition attributes the natural enhancement of the beach along Carlisle Bay (from the Pierhead Rocks to the Grand Barbados) to the Barbados Yacht Club’s loss of royal status! Questions arising wonder if the Royal Barbados Police Force will be desertified and Royal Westmoreland Hotel & Golf Course get a wider beach and more bunkers if they too lose the royal prefix.

It should not be necessary to sharpen a point by hyperbole or “reduction ad absurdum” when the folly of carrying coal to Newcastle is obvious.

The creation of a marina in or at any point of Carlisle Bay would be folly matching the provision of a fresh water swimming pool offshore as extravagant.

Carlisle Bay is an historic roadstead readily adaptable to the provision of hundreds of moorings, to be served by tenders from a shore establishment located where the Barbados Agricultural Development & Marketing Corporation and Fish Processing Plant now stand.

The Fish Processing Plant along Princess Alice Highway is every bit as obnoxious as was the abattoir which relocated.

The Fish Processing Plant should follow suit.

This relocation would enhance the salubrity of the walk along Trevor’s Way now injuriously affected by the stench of fish offal as a greeting to the entrance of The City from the Bridgetown Harbour.

A dedicated fishing harbour possibly in the north-west of the island where the wind is blowing “offshore” would be a happy solution.

LEONARD ST HILL, Former Chief Town Planner