PRESS RELEASE

HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT SINT MAARTEN

Member of Parliament/1st Vice President of Parliament

Hon. Leona Marlin-Romeo

Independent Faction, Tel. 549-0111,

For Immediate Release: Sunday, February 15th, 2015


Independent MP Leona Marlin-Romeo wants it Clearly Defined on Public Access to Beaches



PHILIPSBURG (PARLIAMENT/Independent Faction) – Independent Member of Parliament (MP) Leona Marlin-Romeo has sent a request on Friday February 13th to the Chairman of the Committee Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport &Telecommuncation Member of Parliament (MP) Hon. Frans Richardson for a meeting to be held on the current Beach policy of Sint Maarten, and having public access to the beaches.



“The growing disputes between hotel owners and beach vendors, and citizen’s frustration to access the beaches on Sint Maarten have my attention. Beaches on the island are public domain and should not be considered as private property. Whatever obstacles that are giving the impression that the beaches are private should be addressed immediately by Parliament in order to bring a proper balance to the situation,” MP Marlin-Romeo stated on Sunday.



The MP Marlin-Romeo will be advocating for an immediate change to the current policy and for the policy to include and clearly stipulate the following:



1. That the beaches of Sint Maarten are all public domain, whether man made or natural.
2. The beaches of Sint Maarten are not owned by any establishment or vendor and will remain public domains at all times.
3. Having road access to all of the beaches of Sint Maarten in order to allow full driving accessibility for the ambulance, fire truck and police in cases of emergency, regardless of the beaches being bordered by private property.
5. Space should always be available for everyone, this includes guests, non-guests, to access and make use of the beach at any given time.
6. All persons vending or establishments who are giving an added service to their guests should:
- stack both beach chairs and umbrellas and provide them only on a needed basis.
- both beach chairs and umbrellas are available for guests and non-guests.
-both beach chairs and umbrellas to be picked up by employees after usage of guest or non-guest.
- a fee to be charge for the usage of both chairs and umbrellas by non-guests

7. The amount of chairs indicated on the business license does not signify that all of the chairs should be placed on the beach at any given time. Chairs should be placed on the beach only upon being used this will ensure that sufficient space is there for everyone.

It's simple. No beach access means less tourist. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/noevil.gif" alt="" />

Does that mean that restaurants cannot tell you that you cannot bring your own coolers/food and sit in front of them on Orient? We were chased away by 2-3 bars because he had our own coolers last year even though we purchased their chairs and umbrellas.

theoretically.

SXM??? Wendell

Orient is on the French side. The press release is from the Dutch side.

Excellent point, Dutch versus French side.

Plus, with regard to being able to bring your own food and drink and consume it while sitting in someone else's chairs, the chairs belong to them, so technically they can make the rules what you can do while you are sitting in their chairs. I 'walk with my feet' and don't patronize such people. If they give you free chairs, great, I appreciate that and don't bring my own stuff. If I pay to rent their chairs and they say I can't bring my own stuff and sit there, fine, I won't give them any of my money.

Don't want to hijack the thread, but we also experienced a beach bar on Orient trying to stop us drinking our own soft drinks after paying to use their chairs, even though we were eating lunch there. We did stay as we were with friends, but will NOT return.

It would be nice to know which beach bars follow this practice so we too can avoid them. We do like to bring a soda or two with us and don't care to pay for the use of a chair and umbrella and have the vendor tell us we can't drink our sodas. We usually frequent the French side.

The only one I KNOW of for sure is Coco, at Esmeralda. There may well be others.

Last May one side of the Bikini Beach Bar doesn't allow you to have coolers while the other side does. Go figure. I believe they are the same owners too.

We were at Coco.

Focusing back on the topic of the original poster, I do not see anything in this proposal made by MP Marlin-Romeo about parking... "free access" yes, but nothing about "free" public parking.. how does "free access" good without the possibility of [public] parking... I mean! (but of course that is much more important to get in the beach policy: "a fee to be charge for the usage of both chairs and umbrellas by non-guests" <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />

So .... Does that mean that the boulders at Cupecoy are gonna be removed? Cause they do block access to the beach to the ambulance etc...

Yesterday, Friday, the boulders were moved to allow access to the free parking along side of the Ocean Club! How long this lasts is anyone's guess.

If it will last for the next 2 weeks - I will be extremely happy! Arriving on Tuesday!!!!