Beach blockers in court as PLC clamps down

| 02/03/2023 | 63 Comments
Cayman News Service

(CNS): The Public Lands Commission has identified 39 landowners who are blocking access to the beach or shoreline around Cayman and has begun the process of prosecuting those who are not compliant with enforcement notices. In the first cases since the commission was created, several people appeared in court Tuesday in relation to seven locations where the owners are accused of breaching the law by obstructing the public right to access or the use of public land.

Most of the owners are being given an opportunity to remove the obstructions, such as fences or other blockages, and become compliant before they are punished in accordance with the law. The lands commission is keen to give landowners a chance to do the right thing once they understand they have breached public access rights.

Chief Magistrate Valdis Foldats reminded some of the parties of the heavy financial penalty that comes with blocking such accesses. “The law prescribes a fine of up to $500 per day for each day that the registered access is blocked. While such a fine would be reserved for the worst case, it is in the best interest of the landowners to clear the accesses to avoid such heavy fines,” he warned.

Speaking to the media following the appearances of those connected with the seven cases, PLC Chief Inspector Winsome Prendergast explained that there are another four cases where enforcement notices have been issued, and those individuals are expected to appear in court shortly. Meanwhile, she said the other 28 landowners had already cleared the access points on their land, and therefore the commission would not be pursuing prosecution in those cases.

The commission monitors over 200 registered access points, and Prendergast said it had a robust enforcement plan in place to check that all registered beach accesses were being kept clear.

“The aim is to get the public to be compliant with the rules and regulations of the Public Lands Act,” she said, as she explained why most people were being given a chance to become compliant. But she warned that the office was not afraid to press ahead with a prosecution against those individual landowners who refuse to clear blocked access points, though she expected those cases would be rare, and it would be “only in extreme circumstances” where the commission will push for a fine.

In addition to the 39 that the commission had already identified, Prendergast said the PLC was also pursuing claims from the public about prescriptive rights, though those issues are being handled through the civil division of the courts because breaching prescriptive rights is still not considered a criminal offence.

“Prescriptive rights are rights to use a property that develop over a period of time,” she said, noting that users have to demonstrate that the public has had access and traditionally used an access point for at least 20 years. “The law is not really clear here with how you deal with prescriptive accesses,” she said but she expects some changes to the legislation in the near future to remove any of the ambiguities relating to the Public Lands Act.

Prendergast also confirmed that the situation at the Seven Mile Public Beach remained a key issue for the commission, and following the recent cease and desist notices issued for vendors there, she said that it would soon move to enforce the notice against those who were not compliant. However, she revealed that there are a number of problems surrounding the commercial activity at the over-stretched public spot, not least that around 58 vendors have submitted past applications to trade there.


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Category: Courts, Crime

Comments (63)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    In reviewing the Report…
    Find the link here: https://www.gov.ky/publication-detail/beach-access-report
    …I note some instances of what is obviously Crown land extending from public road to the sea. Most notably what was designated byy signage as Waide’s Road and shown as a N to S swath that in one place cuts roughly diagonally across intervening land. See it on page 861: the road going approx North to South about midway between Coral Ave and Sloop Way.
    And on page 962 to the right hand side of the page is another extension of Crown land, but this one is blocked by private buildings. They are Crown land and were definitely roads used in times past by Brackers as access to the Sea. Why are these not mentioned in the Beach Access Report? And… Why is government allowing apparent encroachments on Crown land?

  2. Anonymous says:

    Many years ago I was walking on the beach passed a few condos in Cayman Kai’s Starfish area and out comes this ‘white older man’ who yells at me to stop. I complied. I stopped. As he approached me, arms up and flattering in the wind, I allowed him to utter his words “why are you walking passed my property.” I stood there in silence, composed myself (by this time my black face was red, red, red!). I then proceeded to remind him that I was on Crown property. His response to me was “Crown my ass”.

    Instead of responding to this male’Karen’, I continued my walk. I knew that if I had engaged in an argument with him, the police would have been called and their ignorance of he law as well would have made me ‘the culprit’ and the rest would have been history.

    Some 20 years later, if this happens again, as I continue to walk pass these condos every morning,the outcome will be different. I am retired, debt free, even more patriotic and honestly I do not give a f***. So, all of you privileged white foreigners who ‘think your shit doesn’t stink’ and you all that because you have bought a piece of my paradise, remember you are not above the law and ignorance of the law is not going to be tolerated any longer by locals.

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  3. Anon says:

    How about some info on the well maintained + used beach access paths?

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  4. Anonymous says:

    The PLC needs to look into the situation where certain condos on WB Road have placed plastic cones/bollards in the road shoulder, right near the public accesses to the beach, as a means to stop or discourage the public going to the beach near their condos.

    The road is public property and no condo strata is allowed to block that area either.

    PLC please have these plastic bollards removed with assistance of the NRA.

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    • Anonymous says:

      One near The Grove has fire lane signs on the bloody sidewalk!!!

      Fire lanes are next to buildings, NOT sidewalks!

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  5. Anonymous says:

    I have 6 ft right of way over my property in nortside. Land is not used and the old path is overgrown because no one uses it. My register does not say anything according to the registered easement about maintenance so happy to those that want to use it to clear it…oh by the way has to be by hand unless you apply to planning permission. Good luck!

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    • Anonymous says:

      If you had any pride in your Country, (that is if you are Caymanian) you would have kept it cleared and maintained it. It is people like you that think only about yourself and not for the future of these islands or its people..Shame on you!

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      • Anonymous says:

        Being Caymanian has nothing to do with it. The law is poorly drafted and conflicted. Blame your Politicians!

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      • Anonymous says:

        What are you talking about? Up until now, the very Cayman Islands Government has not cared about keeping rights-of-way unobstructed much less cleared of bush.
        Generally, it is a well established principle that the duty of maintaining an easement rests upon the holder of the easement and the grantor must not intentionally obstruct an easement. The “holder” is the “grantee” in terms of local Grants of Easement conveyances. Otherwise, specific covenants can be attached to the Grant specifying responsibilities of Grantor and Grantee. In regard to public easements, the government is responsible to maintain public easements and the owner of the land over which the easement apples must not block the easement.

    • Anonymous says:

      Chainsaw fits in my hand nicely!

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  6. Anonymous says:

    In the meantime the Zoo at West Bay Road Public Beach, continues with NO prosecutions! Why not apply the same interest and effort in restoring that lovely beach for PUBLIC usage!

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    • Anonymous says:

      Cruise ship cartel owns it. Go see for yourself when 3-4 polluting behemoths are here. Damn shame its only useable when the cruise ships aren’t here.

  7. Anonymous says:

    Stay tuned folks. Flash mobs will be seen in all 11 of non compliant beach blocker locations.

    Amongst the flash mobs will be many many young middle aged and older Caymanians. There will be people from all walks of life – doctors, lawyers, single moms, hotel workers, store clerks, unemployed.

    PLC, Police, Owners take note. We the Caymanian people have the right to beach access. What we cannot picnic, walk, dance or gather at the beach.

    Stay tuned.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Zzz. No you won’t.

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      • Big Bobo In West Bay says:

        No you won’t. Caymanians are only keyboard warriors but are totally passive and put up with all sorts of political sXXX. Just look at McKeeva.

        A Green Party could never exist here because people never get off their asses to do anything politically. That is why developers rule here.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Bet ya don’t. 99% of the people on this island don’t care about anybody but themselves.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Never gonna happen. Not here, no way, no interest.

  8. Some guy with odd shoes says:

    There are some folks on the Brac who try to be gatekeepers to the west end of the island, including trying to prevent DOE and volunteers from protecting the turtles.

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  9. Anonymous says:

    PLC should seek to backdate putative fines, with interest, costs, and any other penalties the court shall deem fit for these landowners all the way back to the origination of the obstruction – even if that was 30 years ago. There are galleries of admissible photos with dated metadata going way way back. One year’s fines is not going to be justice, and won’t serve to permanently rescale these pathways and keep them open. Some of the offenders also employ full-time daylight security guards, whose sole patrol is to accost any public beach-goer that sets a foot off the narrow path they have left (where that even exists). FINE them hard and send a message that hurts please.

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  10. Anonymous says:

    This is excellent news. It is nice to hear that 28 of the 39 have already complied. I look forward to reading when the remaining 11 do as well.

    Cayman is a great place to live and visit.

    Imagine how the quality of life would improve for all, if enforcement of all existing laws was acted upon by all departments of the CIG.

    The impacts would be significant.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Imagine if every person who crashed in to a stationary light pole was breathalyed by the police who attended the scene.

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    • Johnny Canuck says:

      Yeah, would be nice to see the old Hyatt brought down which has been a sorry site since 2004. The law is on CIG’s side and the fines are considerable but nothing is done. Nothing is enforced in the law.

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  11. Anonymous says:

    Path widths…there’s probably every single one of the access failing the path width.

    and likely every single one of them fails disabled access

    Come on now, get on it and fix this.

    then can we look at how dart was allowed to merge for the yet to be built nonsense at royal palms?

    then can we look at true rights for people on the beach infront of homes? high water marks and vegetation lines..its so strange CIREBA agents never mention these in their bs marketing

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    • AnonymousToo says:

      Wouldnt the merger/combination of access by dart support access for disabled parties? Wasn’t that one of your concerns?

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      • Anonymous says:

        Yes, but it wouldn’t suit their narrative.

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      • Anonymous says:

        No to the proposed path merger. It will ultimately limit beach access, when there are already ample well-established access points which just need to be the legal width. Merging serves no purpose for us, but it certainly would benefit Dart. Time people stopped taking Caymanians for idiots.

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    • Anonymous says:

      You mean the Royal Palms they closed, fenced off, and abandoned to degrade to hazard? Just another impeded public right of way, in a growing portfolio of billionaire-owned eye-sores. Dart contracts should be suspended and subsidiary nominee applications rejected until the UBO addresses these neglected properties with priority. They should all be considered one and the same applicant and rejected.

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  12. Anonymous says:

    Thank you PLC. It’s about time something is being done. These white foreign developers and property owners are taking over our islands and beaches, leaving locals with little to nothing. Not being racist, but it’s facts.

    Government need to put a Holt to the amount of land that’s being purchased. What government need to do is either buy beach property the crown doesn’t own, and/or limit beach land purchases.

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    • Anonymous says:

      @9.57 am “Not being racist”? Sorry but your comment is purely racist. Just as if someone wrote “these blacks playing loud music on the beach”.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Many people would have agreed with your comments had you left out the “white foreign” from the sentence.

      As a “white” multi-generational Caymanian, who does not tolerate racial insensitivity of any kind, those kind of comments detract from your message.

      Remember, the facts can be presented in a non-offensive way to get your point across.

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    • Anonymous says:

      LOL, this after Caymanians sold the land to the white developers, they didn’t steal it. Ask the Kirkconnell’s what they did with the big fat check from Dart for Royal Palms.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Speaking of white, what colour is Matthew Wight of NCB? Yup, you got it! And what colour is Dale Crighton? You just need to face facts about who is developing your island my sheltered little land crab before making racist comments.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Racist garbage disguised as a comment. Also it’s halt not Holt.

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    • Anonymous says:

      @9:57:
      Please do remind readers here how the property in the Cayman Islands originally came out of the hands of the Caymainas who owned it and into the hands of non-Caymanian owners? Did a property gift certificate fall from the hand of God out of the sky?
      Did a large number of Caymanians feel generous and leave their property to strangers from other lands? How did this happen? Do tell.
      A gentle reminder and lesson in history: I will agree when people lament that some expats are arrogant disrespectful morons with an attitude that aptly fits this description: If you could buy them for what they are worth and sell them for what they think they are worth, you could make a fortune. However, many come here because they truly love the islands and much prefer being here than where they come from and they respect the islands and land and its people. When you speak of foreign people coming here, be reminded that at one time, all people who came and settled in the Islands were foreigners. Among my Caymanian forebears were some of the original settlers in the islands (foreigners by definition): they hailed from Europe and Jamaica. Many many many years ago, dem furiners come yah an’ tek ovah dees islands. That is how we “locals” came to be: all of us…every single one of us Caymanians, of all races and colours, are the descendants of dem damn furiners.

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  13. Anonymous says:

    The solution is to allow the pubic to walk through private hotels that have removed public beach access.
    There used to be hundreds of access points along smb now theres what maybe 20-30 the entire strip?
    Half of them are overgrown so the public doesn’t use them and another quarter is being blocked.

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    • AnonymousToo says:

      Thats a silly solution. How would you like to buy land on the beach, build your house and THEN have a government body tell you you need to allow the public to walk through?

      Your solution is no solution friend.

      Remember, your public beach access must be registered for it to be enforceable.

      Fair is fair, if you buy land and nothing on the land papers say the public has access across your property nor did the Caymanian sellers tell you the public has access over your property. How can you be held accountable?

      How is it fair to you the buyer for strangers to come and say you must give the public access. Access must be registered. Hurry up all and register the public accesses ….memory is not enough.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Public access was removed because of developers supporting hotels and condo owners that were there before they decided to do something illegal and remove the access.

        Ok so blame planning department for not enforcing the rules or the developers not obeying the rules.

        These hotels don’t care about any low fines they are happy to pay them.

        The best solution is to destroy the buildings that block access, at the owner’s cost.

        The same way you walk through Camana bay should be allowed just to walk to the beach.

        The same corruption has happened in so many other countries and the locals have no beach access.

        Why is it we live on an island but the locals who can’t afford beach property must drive 10-20 miles just to get to a decent beach to swim?

        The wealthy are just selfish and will do whatever they can to protect their assets even if it includes breaking a few laws, no one ever gets caught right?
        So why not…?

        Like expanding your boundary lines and saying you now own more than you actually do. This is what has happened and continued to happen for ages now.

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        • Anonymous says:

          Additional.

          Beach Access should be Crown/Public Land.
          It should be registered with lands and surveys.

          The law that it needs to be registered again for it to be valid is a loophole developers have pushed to avoid being punished.

          No other signs need to be registered in Cayman for they to be legal, stop signs or speed signs.
          A sign is a sign and Lands and Survey has the information for it to be registered.

          Someone find access points 20 and 40 years ago. You wouldn’t believe how many have been taken down.

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        • AnonymousToo says:

          Again this is silly, you are saying the same way you walk through Camana bay you should be allowed to just walk to the beach, how does that comparison make sense.

          You can walk through camana bay via the DESIGNATED walking spaces and open areas. For the private homes and offices including back offices I SURELY cant just walk though!
          Or maybe you can try to walk through the back offices of the banks in camana bay and see how it goes?

          Its my understanding that the locals were the original owners of the beach front properties. BUT being islanders, we weren’t inclined to build our homes next to the sea (too many close calls with storms/hurricanes maybe?) So historically, that land had low value to the locals and we sold these beach front land for for pennies. However now this beach front land is highly prized.

          As for expanding boundary lines…..I suggest you get a fixed land survey any time you buy property. If you chat to the guys at the front desk at lands and survey they can explain to you all about this. This way you know exactly how much land you have bought vs what the seller claim they selling you.

          I dont know about you but I dont want to be fooled later on thinking the new neighbor took my land!

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      • Anonymous says:

        If one had a good lawyer he / she would have done some good due diligence for you.

        It is on the “land papers” but your lawyer has to do a bit of work.

    • Anonymous says:

      Does anyone know if there is a publicly available map of all the public beach access routes in the Cayamn Islands? Asking for a friend of many tourists.

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  14. Anonymous says:

    they also need to check the paths that are not blocked, but have had the 6 feet cut down to two or three feet. Prime example is beside Beach SUites, they have slowly pushed that space to nothing. While they are at it fining people, perhaps start fi ning Dart for the Hyatt eyesore….

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    • Anonymous says:

      Perhaps start with the Glasshouse, fine that.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Glass House is not a beach access path being blocked.

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        • Anonymous says:

          Nor is the former Hyatt. Your point?

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          • Anonymous says:

            I think the point was that dart has made the path beside beach suites small.. fine him. And he has left a derelict building and should be fined as well for this

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            • Anonymous says:

              No, the point was a tired old attempted dig at Dart

              If the noted access is not compliant then yes, issue the fines or whatever, otherwise stfu and find something useful to do.

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      • Anonymous says:

        The Glass House is not an eyesore. It’s a shame that the interior can’t be fixed to serve another day and another purpose.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Incorrect path widths all along WB road to Fosters Republix

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    • Anonymous says:

      Leave Dart alone, that man has done so much to make Cayman great and hired so many Caymanians. You are very jealous. God Bless you Mr. Dart

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      • Jaded by the sea of green says:

        Takes what cannot be replaced like swaths of mangrove habitat. Providing a few jobs for Caymanians, underhandedly ‘influencing’ decision makers and leaders to gain majority control over these islands is not what I’d call giving back. His choice of architecture stinks, is not additive nor is it fitting with the identity of these islands either. To put it bluntly our leaders chose to allow this rape & pillage mentality since the day Dart acquired Status from our most infamous politician.
        Sadly it’s too late as he has infiltrated the inner workings of government and what he doesn’t own he exerts control over including people in power.

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      • Anonymous says:

        The Glass House is not an eyesore. It’s a shame that the interior can’t be fixed to serve another day and another purpose.

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        • Anonymous says:

          The Glasshouse is a disgrace. A national monument celebrating CIvil Service and political incompetence, much like the dump.

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      • Miami Dave says:

        Geez, certainly wish Mr. Dart would pull down the old Hyatt. He has been required to do this now for many years but the CIG does nothing. Why?

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