7 News Belize

Caye Caulker Village Council, Battling Haphazard Growth
posted (March 22, 2019)

And while Caye Caulker can look forward to the prospect of life without the constant hum of diesel generators, it’s a mixed bag, because on this small and precious island, progress really does bring problems.  

We heard a lot about those when we had a sitdown with the village council on Wednesday night.  Here’s what they had to say:..

Caye Caulker is one of the most special places in Belize - with its sandy streets, its famous split easily accessible swimming areas.Trees, breeze and beaches, natural beauty and a chill vibe that can’t be matched for human’s and human’s best friends.

Tourists can’t get enough - and with that kind of demand paradise doesn’t stay unspoiled for too long. And its village council says that Caye Caulker has a major case of growing pains rapid unregulated and haphazard growth.

We met with the village councillors who were all too scared to show their face on camera - but they had a lot on their minds about the use of public beaches, for one:

Councillor
"We have little beach access and now we find that the little that we have is being clustered with all these little tour shops and being built on the beaches. The people who have beach front property, they claimed that they own the beach as well, they are building these. Others who are seeing it, they just want to be renting off to other people to sell food, clothes and so forth and leaves us with little beach left where our visitors and us as locals as well, we want to walk along our beaches, we want to sit on the beach and enjoy the viewâ€￾

And then, there’s the problems with the private piers:

Councillor
"Because you have some bridges, they have like a fence around it with gates and that shouldn't be. No pier should have a gate on it and in some cases we understand they are stopping people from being on the beach as well and that beach is public access. All around the island, it's beach access, no one should be chasing a person from off the beach and in certain areas it locals that they don't want on the beach."

The problem, they say is political interference in village affairs:

Councillor
"We try our best to stop certain things but then certain individuals if they are getting assistance from a minister - they bring a recommendation from a minister, what can the village council do? It's the village that we are working for, the community and this is what we want to do and that is what keeps back I believe not only Caye Caulker village council but all villages because you hear the complaints from all village chairpersons. This is what keeps them back from moving forward - it's the ministers."

And while from the birds eye view Paradise is not lost, the village council says land use is just the start of their problems. 

In our next story, we’ll hear their complaints about liquor licenses.

We probably don’t need to say it, but the village council is PUP and the area rep Manuel Juniour Herredia is UDP.  

We’ll have part two of that story next week - and will also get comment from the UDP are rep.

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