Drama of Burwood Beach Jamaica
Channel: Buddy Huggins
Date: 2017-12-18

Burwood Beach Drama in Jamaica. Jamaicans Love Them Some Drama!  https://buddyhuggins.blogspot.com/2017/12/jamaicas-beaches-access-and-rights.html

Jamaica’s Beaches: Access And Rights
Listen with webReader
Published:Sunday | January 22, 2017 | 12:00 AM  Peter Knight

We write in response to two articles appearing in The Gleaner over the past week under the byline of Professor Carolyn Cooper ('No beach for local tourist' and Diana McCaulay ('The problem of beach exclusion'). Both articles highlighted a real resource-management challenge Jamaica has faced over the past 50 years, wherein access to, and use of, a seemingly common and freely available natural resource, the beach, is increasingly being denied to a wide number of Jamaicans.

It is unquestionable that the beaches are of great value to Jamaica in social, environmental, and economic terms. The enjoyment of the beach and beach facilities must be an integral part of the life of the citizens of Jamaica. The coastline of Jamaica is approximately 795km (494 miles) long, with approximately 30 per cent (238.5km) being characterised as sandy beach.

In recent years, there has been significant development of Jamaica's coastal areas related to the tourism industry. Discussions surrounding the issues of public access to beaches are usually focused on the sense of exclusion from some beaches, particularly beaches associated with hotels. The hotel beaches are also purportedly the better beaches, and in this regard, it is also felt that there are not enough operational public beaches available as an alternative.

In Jamaica, there is no statute that conveys any general rights over the foreshore or the floor of the sea save and except those provisions contained in the Beach Control Act, 1956.

The legal definition of a beach is the foreshore and floor of the sea. These are defined as follows:

The foreshore is "that portion of land adjacent to the sea that lies between the ordinary high water and low water marks, being alternately covered and uncovered as the tide ebbs and flows".

The floor of the sea is "the soil and subsoil off the coast of the island between low water mark and the outer limits of the territorial sea of the island and shall be deemed to include the water column and superadjacent to the floor of the sea and the natural resources therein and the Exclusive Economic Zone".

Ownership of the foreshore is vested in the Crown, except where rights are acquired under or by virtue of the Registration of Titles Act or any express grant or licence from the Crown subsisting immediately before 1956. The portion of the beach above the foreshore may be private or public property. The Beach Control Act did not seek to convey general rights to the public to gain access to and use the foreshore or the floor of the sea. Section 3 vests ownership in the Crown and declares that no person shall be deemed to have any rights in or over the foreshore or the floor of the sea, except such rights acquired under the act. These rights include any rights enjoyed by fishermen engaged in fishing as a trade, where such rights existed immediately before June 1, 1956.

Rights of fishing and bathing may, however, be acquired by custom, that is, prescriptive rights, and such customary rights are addressed in Section 14 of the Beach Control Act and Sections 4 and 9 of the Prescription Act, 1882. In common law, the public has no general rights of access to the foreshore or the floor of the sea or to beaches. There are no general common-law rights over the foreshore except to pass over it for the purpose of navigation or fishing.

Privileges to bathe may be enjoyed within a licensed beach subject to the rights of the licensee. These beaches are subject to the Beach Control (Hotel, Commercial and Public Recreational Beaches) Regulations 1978 and the Beach Control (Licensing) Regulations, 1956.

#Jamaica #SportsVacations, #JamaicaWaterSports, #KiteboardingLessons, #Kitesurfing Lessons, #Kiteboarding Jamaica, #BrianSchurton, kitesurfing, #Windsurfing, #PaddleBoardRentals    Brian Schurton cell 1-876-841-4062

#CaribbeanWellness #PlayaMujeres #Cancún #Mexico #Jamaica #caribbean #beachesresorts #turksandcaicos #CelebrityCruises #Cruise #Travel #Barbados #tourists #travelindustry #CHTA #hotels #caribbean #PuertoRico #CaymanIslands #GeorgeTown #QueenConch #dominicanrepublic #tropical #palmtrees #vegetation #beachfrontlot #beach 


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Road to the Ironman Triathlon - ONE MILE AT A TIME  
Follow Me on STAVA :  https://www.strava.com/athletes/3439119

My Social Media links:

Support Me Here At This Link
https://www.paypal.me/BuddyHuggins
https://plus.google.com/+BuddyHuggins/
https://www.youtube.com/user/iambuddyhuggins
http://buddyhuggins.blogspot.com/ 
https://www.facebook.com/buddyhuggins