I would like to commend Cheryl-Ann Griffin, whose letter written on behalf of the community objecting to the Shelly Bay Beach restaurant and parking lot plans was carried in The Royal Gazette on Monday.

I know she has spent a great deal of time organising opposition to the Shelly Bay plans. Her letter was a report on these efforts, explaining that a petition containing approximately 1,000 signatures had been presented to the Department of Planning, together with a number of individual letters of objection to the plan for the beach area that Tom Steinhoff has put together. Her letter was well reasoned, constructive and to the point.

I was particularly pleased that her campaign had not descended into the kind of political circus that sometimes grows out of disagreements such as this one, despite one or two efforts to try to push it in that direction. There really should be more to life in Bermuda than politics.

This has been a classic and simple case of a community coming together and taking action to protect itself from what it perceives as the threat of damage from outside the community. I live in that area and fully understand why people might object to the notion of a parking lot displacing an area that traditionally has been used as a site for picnics.

By the same token, I know the Bermuda Tourism Authority and the Ministry of Public Works have been working hard to try to upgrade Bermuda’s beach facilities, including restroom facilities. That is important to our efforts to improve tourism. We must not lose sight of that Mr Steinhoff’s plan does promise to improve the beach experience at Shelly Bay substantially, and that the country will be better off for his efforts.

It will now be up to the Development Applications Board to decide what is to happen. Based on its past performance, we can have faith that the board will make a wise decision.

I hope that during this process, Ms Griffin, the neighbouring community and Mr Steinhoff go out of their way to build and maintain a relationship of friendship and mutual respect. That would be to everyone’s benefit.

• Lynne Woolridge is a government senator and the chairwoman of the One Bermuda Alliance