Compendium reveals myth of development struggle
(CNS): The persistent complaint from the development lobby and their political supporters was exposed as a myth in the latest edition of the Compendium of Statistics published by the Economics and Statistics Office. The idea that developers are struggling to get things done because of the National Conservation Act was revealed to be totally false by the statistics. In 2023, 1,323 planning applications were approved across all three islands, which is the most ever recorded since the ESO began compiling these numbers in 2015.
Last week, Deputy Premier Kenneth Bryan again criticised the conservation legislation, implying that things had tipped too much in favour of the environment and applicants were struggling to get things done.
He is not alone. Local politicians have often erroneously suggested that the law is preventing the development and falsely claimed that it bestows unprecedented power on the director of the Department of the Environment.
But as has been shown repeatedly, the National Conservation Act is extremely limited in its ability to curb development even in the most egregious of circumstances. In the decade since the law was implemented, literally thousands of acres of critical mangroves, wetlands, primary unique habitat forest and shrubland, and the species they support have been lost to the bulldozer.
The reason that four members of the UPM government resigned last week had much to do with their disagreements with the remaining members over what they described as the goal of the UPM administration to gut the legislation to pave the way for “unfettered development“.
Although a lot of the information in the Compendium is now outdated and has been updated in other sources of statistical information from the ESO and other government entities, it is the only place where all of the country’s numbers in a 12-month period are pulled together in one document.
In this 2023 edition, tucked away towards the end of the compendium in Chapter 19, are the statistics from the Department of Environmental Health. This shows that 145,590 tonnes of rubbish was managed across all three islands in 2022, but even with a more than 10% increase in the population in 2023, the amount of rubbish managed by the DEH fell to 131,211.
Despite this unexplained and relatively unnoticeable drop in the amount of waste being managed, over the last ten years, the amount of garbage managed last year was still three and a half times more than the 38,697 tonnes of rubbish that went to the landfill in 2012.
The amount of power generated last year, however, was the most in CUC’s history, at 735,400 mw-hrs for the year, a notable increase on the 681,000 generated in 2022. Over the last decade, the compendium shows that in 2013, 40% of homes had a land-based telephone line, but just 14% did last year, while homes connected to the internet increased from around 64% in 2013 to almost 95% last year.
See the Compendium of Statistics on the ESO website here.
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Category: Local News
Compendium reveals that 78.6% of statistics are made up
Forfty percent of all people know that.
I wish the make believe deputy premier and the rest of his rag tag bunch would grow some brain cells and stop their incessant howling in favour of developing every sq. inch of Cayman. Think about your children and generations to come and leave something for them. Stop selling our Beloved aisle to the highest bidder.
go through the process cns…then you will understand the struggle against the staggering level on incompetence at planning and bcu…
The variance in the amount of garbage collected has everything to do with previous inaccuracies in its measurement and nothing to do with anything else.
The NCA is incompatible with the Constitution.
Which part of the constitution?
The compendium also tells us that more applications were referred to NCC (by the DOE, which is, for all intents and purposes, the same thing) than ever before in our history.
Who’s deliberately masking the truth now?
That is because we are running out of desirable land and so development proposals are pushing at the margins and trying to get things done that shouldn’t be. Each referral is a direct result of the project proposed and the impacts it may have. NCC/DOE cannot try to block something that has not been proposed. No deliberate masking of truth going on. You have uncovered nothing.
Is that an increase in the percentage of referrals or just an increase in numbers? If 1 in 10 are referred, and you have 10 applications you get 1 referral, if you have 100 applications and get 10 referrals it’s the same, but if the referrals are now 50 or 60 then that might be an issue, or you are getting more contentious applications. Some context is needed. Numbers can’t tell the whole story.
Unless you are the environmental lobby in which case you twist the numbers to appear to be in your favor.
What you have noted does not make sense and we are all the dumber for having had to read it!
The NCA is an impediment to dredging beach rock sand, deep routes through the north sound, the Zeus marina, FCCA Cruise port, and other developer garbage better suited to Bahamas.
Facts and credible stats do not matter to the liars and pirates in politics and the civil service with their propaganda because they are for sale.
They are profiting from selling out these islands and must continue to eat from the trough.
Ding Dong Kenny B is only saying what his handlers pay him to say. Of all of Cayman’s most despicable elected politicians, Ding Dong Kenny B might just be the most despicable, which is saying something since McKeeva and Juliana are still both elected politicians.
They are all worthless trash. Heard Bush blowing his gums on Bryant’s radio show tonight. What utter garbage they both were spewing
What else do you expect. They didn’t get pass primary one in school!