London: Pigeon Point owners didn’t want to negotiate

Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Orville London said Thursday it was clear the owners of the Pigeon Point estate were not prepared to negotiate. He said Government would have no choice but to acquire the property as requested by the THA.

“It is the responsibility of this (THA) administration to ensure that Cabinet agrees,” said London. The THA Chief Secretary emphasised the point at the weekly post Executive Council meeting press conference at the THA Administrative Complex at Calder Hall in Scarborough. He accused the Pigeon Point owners of reneging on all the proposals that were hammered out over two years of negotiations to resolve the long-standing impasse. He charged that they came up with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that sought to change all the proposals.

London said the THA put forward a number of proposals for resolution of the controversial issue in discussions with representatives of Robinson Crusoe Ltd/Club Pigeon Point and “there was consensus that this is what we wanted and what we had agreed.” “I made it very clear at that meeting that this was the make-or-break point, because we had a situation where we had got the original proposals from Robinson Crusoe, we had the original proposals from the fisherfolk and other interested parties and then based on that we came up with the proposals coming from the THA.”

London said some of the proposals were “quite controversial and did not necessarily meet with the approach of every single sector.” He said they were however prepared to act on them because it was felt they could resolve problems at Pigeon Point. “What we got in response was a Memorandum of Understanding that would have adjusted or attempted to change every single one of those proposals.” The THA has refused to sign the MOU. London said it was against this background that the THA Executive Council decided to seek compulsory acquisition of the property for public purposes.