Leave Josiah's Bay beach alone - Naomi Frett-Patterson
Several persons from the Josiah’s Bay area desperately sought the attention of Virgin Islands News Online including Ms Naomi Frett-Patterson to further help stretch the reaches of their voices as it relates to the beach.
As Dr the Hon Pickering nor could his Permanent Secretary Mr Ronald Berkeley-Smith not be reach at the time, the cries of those concerned were too loud to be left unattended. This news site will still be seeking a response from the relevant authorities for a later update.
Their concerns surround the removal of a stone breach which was erected at the beach approximately one year before the Virgin Islands Party (VIP) left office aft having lost the 2011 elections. Ms Frett-Patterson explained that the structure was put in place as the ground sea swells at that time used to be very aggressive and were responsible for drowning.
“I think our worst enemies of this Island are WE who belong to this Island. The best this beach has been in years is now because of those rocks,” she said.
The woman, who said that she was born in the area and spent the greater part of her life there, has experienced the sea at its best and worst as it relates to the activities of the beach. She said that recently Dr the Hon. Pickering along with a consultant visited the beach and was insisting that there is need for some restructuring of the beach which she and several others have seriously warned him against.
She further explained that prior to the rocks being placed were are currently there was a very bad undertow. “I can’t explain to you the technicalities but since they put those rocks there that undertow was cut off and people could now go where they couldn’t go before,” she said.
“I begged the Minister to get some other consultants to advise him. If those rocks weren’t an asset to the beach I would have been the first to say so. But I know they’re an asset, I have been here, and I know they’re an asset to the beach and its only selfishness and it’s not what is best for the country that this consultant is advising that those that rock be moved. It’s not what’s best for the Islands, its personal reasons and you could tell them I say that,” said the woman who expressed her deep love for the Island of Tortola and the people as well.
She said her care and concerns for the area are usually expressed in many other ways as many would attempted to do things at the beach that are unlawful and she would stop them without even going to the relevant authorities.
This news site was informed by reliable sources, another resident of the area that the present consultant was totally opposed to the Mr Hodges decision to design the beach the way it is. “This thing is not about the people but all about some few getting some money in their hands and more than that political mileage. It has nothing about what is best for the people and this Territory and that is a very sad state of affairs,” alleged one man.
Another concerned resident said that what needs to be done is cleaning up of another section that is currently is a very bad state with stagnant murky water. “I told the Minister, and not me alone several of us told him that all they need to is clean that area up and they would see the difference, but like we too small to advise them,” said one man.
The Drowning beach
Even as our reporter was on the way to the beach one person warned about going to swim at the Josiah’s Bay Beach referring to it as the ‘Drowning beach’.
They stated that people no longer go there to picnic or swim but this news site found the beach packed with persons swimming, surfing and having a good time.
“People are now coming back to the beach because they now seeing the benefits of those rocks which were placed there. Some of the surfers are even asking for it to be extended even a few more inches but that’s only for their benefit in surfing, now the Minister and his consultant telling me about they want to remove the rock, which is nonsense. This beach is at the best it’s has ever been in all its existence,” Ms Frett-Patterson said.
“I begging the minister, not for me alone but for all the people, this is a beautiful little island. This beach is at its best. Don’t let one selfish person spoil a good thing, just clean up that other part…the people are coming back to the beach because it is now safe,” she reiterated.
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28 Responses to “Leave Josiah's Bay beach alone - Naomi Frett-Patterson”
Check ALL the beaches on the north side: all of them are the size they would be in summer, when the calm waters helps build up the sand and make them wide and broad. The beaches have been safe and quiet this winter NOT because of that foolish rock stone structure but because, for the first year anyone can remember, there has been none of the usual North swell.
Surfers know it's a JOKE to start messing with the coastline. Whatever humans do, the ocean will come and wash it clean away. Humans don't 'design' coastlines. Nature does. This messing with the shore is pure ignorance, politics and money business. Give someone a contract to put stupid rocks in the sea, then give someone else a contract to remove them. Who gains? The contractors and the Minister. Who loses? The people of the BVI watching our natural legacy getting bought and sold and tampered with until we become what, a dead zone that no one wants to visit? Best thing you can do with the coastline is LEAVE IT ALONE. God and Nature got their own thing going on, and man in his ignorance will always lose the fight against the sea.
Those rocks are a disgrace that prevents the natural flow of the tide coming in and out and to clean the pond. I have lived here my entire life and have never seen the foolishness that has been allowed to destroy this area because of a of selfish business owner who doesn't even live on the beach and whose only concern is to make money. Sick of all of them especially the politicians who had a hand in this named H & P.
Those rocks at Josiah's Bay can no way "stop" the currents from happening. It's just that there has been no ground sea this year, as part of the weird weather all over the world. What this lady is doing is simply showing ignorance of the way beaches, coastlines and the ocean work. Do not listen to her for advice.
And besides, she's a squatter on that land, so she shouldn't have any say at all about what happens down there.
She'll paid for that land she's presently on
Enable it to enhance itself. Its a high energy beach - a popular surf site and NOT an area that is safe for people who do not understand surf, undertow, and swells. This year there have hardly been any swells which is why the beach has "appeared safe". You can't fight nature - learn to let nature enhance your life.