A concerned group, most of them residents, is horrified over what they describe as the disgraceful state of the historic The Hole/Indian River at Holetown, St James where settlers landed 400 years ago.
The group includes Professor Emeritus Robin Mahon, businessman Andrew Bynoe and Lee Farnum-Badley and it is asking authorities to do more to preserve the ecosystem and clear the blockage that is hampering beach access.
Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies Professor Emeritus Mahon, said: “We believe that an area like this should be conserved and operated as a conservation area so people can see what types of animals we get here, which would be birds, crabs, fish and many other things.
“What you see there is not conducive to sustaining a small ecosystem and we should be making a big deal about that. Right now it’s a disgrace. We should turn this back into a thriving little ecosystem that respects its history and its nature.”
The river is located next to a few properties, including Royalton CHIC, which is under development.
Recently, the group highlighted a wooden storage facility and a concrete foundation, located on the Royalton side of the canal which they said once served as a pathway to the beach but is now blocked by several branches and bush.
Englishman Captain John Powell was reportedly the first European to visit the island when he and his crew sailed in on the Olive Blossom. After their arrival, they wrote the words James K of E on a tree and named the area Jamestown. The river outlet in the area reminded them of an area called “The Hole” in the Thames
River in England.
Mahon stressed that it was important to preserve that area, considering the few that still exist in the country.
“Originally this area extended across the Royalton site and little by little we have inched in on it, and what you are seeing here is the latest closing in.
“We had about 24 areas like this along the West Coast. This was the second biggest Indian river after Bridgetown; you could bring boats into it. Out of those 24, we have about five left with any kind of nature because the rest are now concrete channels,” Mahon added.
Businessman Bynoe has been publicly speaking about beach access issues including the recent sale of the nearby Civic Centre where the Holetown monument is located, and residents fear development there will further minimise access to Holetown Beach.
“This is a world heritage site. It’s the first place the English landed in 1625 and it has some significance, so to say you are celebrating 400 years of the landing of the English but do nothing to beautify the area or to cause us to believe this has some significance to the history of Barbados . . . we are losing the ball,” Bynoe said.
He urged the Government to define the borders of the river and if a section is owned by the hotel.
“The Government should define the demarcation of this river. Does this river extend beyond the banks? To what point in the band does this river extend? That should be clearly established,” he added.
Holetown resident Lee Farnum-Badley agreed that the current state of such a critical area was a missed opportunity to make a “big deal about”.
“This was a hub from which the expansion of the island took place. There is a lot of history here, especially in a year we are celebrating 400 years since the first landing of a European in Barbados. I think that we are missing a huge opportunity, touristically and socially by not recognising a quadricentennial of the arrival of Europeans in Barbados,” he said.
The longtime resident however said he spoke to the hotel developers, whom he said had plans to develop the area.
“The idea was that this was to continue being a passage to the beach and that they would turf the water’s edge. The property of the hotel’s builders reaches right up to the middle of the creek and the mangroves are in a terrible state, and will be replaced with other vegetation more pleasant for the guests of the hotel,” Farnum-Badley said.
A representative of Royalton, in relation to questions sent to the company, told the DAILY NATION that the matter would be checked on.
