Last Row Before The Fall: What to do about Kings Beach

As pictured above the last row of coconut trees at the abandoned Kings Beach Hotel is falling into the sea. It is amazing to see the amount of beach that has been lost to the sea since the groins went in on the beach at the condo project under construction next door - beach area that will never return without human intervention. Added to this miasma is the impending sale of the property at public auction at 3:00 pm on May 27 for the collection of US $ ¼ M in land tax arrears owed the Government.

It is the humble opinion of this blog that this is a golden opportunity for Government to step in and do something bold which could be of benefit to the island’s heritage as well as for the key tourism industry. Instead of selling Kings Beach at auction to the highest bidder who will only build more of the problematic condos, Government should seize the property for non-payment of taxes and declare it a national heritage site, as indeed it is, being the location of the beach house to which the Father of Independence and National Hero, Errol Barrow, regularly resorted in the 1960s.

Government should then either raze what remains of the hotel and turn the area into a national park or restore it for some other public purpose with the appropriate marker noting its historical significance to Barbados and the wider Caribbean. In the process of doing this the beach should also be restored. This is a golden opportunity for the party Mr. Barrow was instrumental in founding, the Democratic Labour Party which was recently returned to power in Barbados, to step up to the plate and do something truly great for the people.