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Ashcroft Alliance Calls Proposed Portico Legislation “Wrongheaded, Abusive”
Mon, May 22, 2023
The Port of Magical Belize - proposed for the southern Belize District - the signs suggest it's the Briceno administration's favored cruise port - and reports tell us that enabling legislation for it could be going to the house as early as next month.

That would be in addition to the Definitive Agreement signed solely by the former UDP Minister of Investment - which Prime Minister Briceno has said he considers to be binding.

So, things are all lined up for the Port of Magical Belize, and its parent group, Portico. But the Ashcroft Alliance is intent on breaking up that line. His attorney, Godfrey Smith wrote to the Prime Minister last week saying, quote, "our information (is) that your government intends very shortly to table legislation giving effect to the provisions of the secret, much maligned and discredited Definitive Agreement."

Smith adds, quote, "Our instructions are that, if your government persists in what would be a patently wrong-headed and abusive process to favour and advantage its preferred developer, without any regard for transparency and accountability, we are to immediately launch judicial review proceedings to challenge the propriety of such legislation and governmental action."

So, there it is, the threat of another legal entanglement with the Ashcroft Alliance, which has maintained that it received unfair and unequal treatment when its Waterloo Port proposal was rejected - while others, principally Portico - received environmental approval despite significant dredging dangers.

Interestingly, the CEO of the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Kendrick Williams has written to Smith saying that his office - which is the secretariat for NEAC - also does not have a copy of the Definitive Agreement for Portico.

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