Barbuda Ocean Club
Barbuda Ocean Club (aka Peace Love and Happiness or PLH) is intending to be 700 luxury holiday homes in what amounts to a gated community. Judging by the miles of fencing they have put up to keep us out, all along the south coast of Barbuda. Already extensively building on Coco Point’s old lease, according to their brochure there will be a ‘vibrant surf-side village’ where Coco Point once stood with homes starting at $3m. At the other end, on Palmetto hotel’s old lease, they are destroying natural wetland trying to build a golf course (this never worked for K Club) and have further objectionable plans to put a marina on the lagoon: our important (and protected) Ramsar site.They are planning a sports park, an organic farm and (to offset destroying their natural habitat) heavily promote their Sea Turtle Project and Reef Renewal.
The ugly concrete dwellings are completely unsuited to the beach-side environment, only a few metres from the sea, with very little information available about who the sub-lessee/owners might turn out to be, and what long-term benefits they will bring to Barbuda. In the short term some Barbudan home-owners are now able to make an income renting surplus village accommodation to PLH contractors, and this was much needed for Barbudans after Hurricane Irma. PLH have also worked on a number of token projects in the village, although rumours here and in Antigua suggest that their contractors are now beginning to pull out, owed millions of dollars, and the billonaires may be ‘running out of money’.
There is very liitle opportunity for staff development, training or promotion here at Barbuda Ocean Club and so most Barbudans have left and been replaced by migrant workers from Antigua or other Caribbean islands.
The deal to allocate this vast amount of land to one organisation was facilitated by the Government of Antigua and their handful of Barbudan supporters who stand to benefit most from this, as they encourage the avoidance of tax due to the Barbuda Council. Included in it was the new ‘international airport’ which was opened recently to allow Barbuda Ocean Club (and Nobu) guests to arrive to Barbuda in their private jets without stopping in Antigua, and exit the airport through a newly constructed and separate VIP lounge.
These and other issues have resulted in PLH/BOC being an unpopular choice for Barbudans. We are not accustomed to being excluded from areas of our land such as Palmetto, or living with people who refuse to pay the taxes they owe us, or who need to erect miles of fencing to feel secure, or who have little interest in engaging with the people who have taken care of this island for over 400 years.
