February 6, 2014

Dear Sir,

In his letter titled “Do not give Bermuda’s inheritance away”, published on 3 February, 2014, your correspondent Mr. John H. Holdipp III makes several comments unfavourable to the Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce (BEST) that are incorrect.

First, he states that the development of Morgan’s Point was “forced on the people of this country” by BEST and its supporters. That is incorrect. BEST did not FORCE anything on the people of this country, nor did we FORCE the government to do anything. The Premier at the time, Alex Scott, and his government proposed and take credit for the idea of the land swap. Another Premier, Dr. Ewart Brown, decided on the amount of the exchange, 37 acres at Southlands for 80 acres at Morgan’s Point. Much of the rest of the 240 acres at Morgan’s Point was leased, by the government with no input from BEST, to the Morgan’s Point developers.

While Mr. Holdipp labels Southlands as “a small piece of land most of us have never walked through,” at 37 acres Southlands is one of the largest undeveloped plots of land on the Island. Also, most of us have never walked through Morgan’s Point either.

Mr. Holdipp’s points are mixed up when, referring to Morgan’s Point, he states, “We should not give our inheritance to strangers from other lands.” Southlands, the land he castigates BEST for trying to save, was slated to be developed by a company from Dubai (strangers from another land); Morgan’s Point, the land Mr. Holdipp holds up as the inheritance being given to strangers from other lands, is being developed by a local company headed up by three Bermudians.

Finally, Mr. Holdipp’s analysis seems confused about what has been “given away” and to whom. Southlands now belongs to the Bermuda people — it didn’t before. And all the land at Morgan’s Point still belongs to Bermuda, except for the 80 acres that the government, not BEST, swapped for Southlands.

We at BEST share Mr. Holdipp’s concern about our “inheritance”. In fact, it was concern about our inheritances that motivated us to save the relatively pristine “greenfield” of Southlands, and to welcome its exchange for “brownfield” (already developed and partially polluted) land at Morgan’s Point.

STUART HAYWARD