South Coast hotel considers closure amid coastal erosion

Beach erosion along a section of the shoreline behind Savannah Beach Hotel, where the sea is encroaching towards the property. (Photos by Maria Bascombe) Serious beach erosion and rising sea levels are threatening the structure of the centuries-old Savannah Beach Hotel in the UNESCO Historic Garrison area, forcing its owner to consider closing the property if emergency measures cannot be taken to mitigate what the Coastal Zone Management Unit (CZMU) has described as a crisis. Beach erosion along a section of the shoreline behind Savannah Beach Hotel, where the sea is encroaching towards the property. (Photos by Maria Bascombe) Veteran hotelier Bernie Weatherhead, who owns the south coast property, said on Friday that the situation had deteriorated to such an extent that he had paid out more than $100 000 in refunds to guests affected by the eroding beach. Some of the trees along what remains of the beach have also fallen into the sea. In an exclusive interview with Barbados TODAY, Weatherhead traced the events leading up to the present situation and spoke about what the future holds for Savannah and its 87 workers. “We are suffering from what has been permitted all the way east of us. That means leaving Savannah and driving up to Oistins. All sorts of groynes have been put in but I think a lot of it [the repair] is at our expense,” he said. Weatherhead explained that he met with representatives of the CZMU, which advised him to hire an engineer to determine what needed to be done to rectify the problem. The veteran hotelier said he had done so, and the engineer was preparing a study for submission to the relevant authorities. You Might Be Interested In “What he [the engineer] said is that…we have a very urgent problem and it needs to be addressed. He is, meanwhile, going to be putting together a study [to show] that what we want to do has nothing to do with anything below us. We are not going out into the sea with a wall that is horizontal. We are hoping to build in front of our property, along the whole front that is part of our property…[where] we are going to build a boulder wall so that you don’t get that water flying in there and eating out everything.” Exposed roots leave a tree nearly uprooted as erosion strips away sand along the shoreline behind Savannah Beach Hotel (Photo by: Maria Bascombe) However, Weatherhead said his business continued to suffer while he awaited what he believed should be emergency permission to proceed with construction of the boulder wall. “It has gotten to the point,” the hotel owner added, “that all of our trees have basically fallen into the sea and the water now is threatening our actual structure, that is the beach wall…we have lost sand from easily 40 feet into the sea, and it goes all the way down. We recently bought the property that includes where the Hastings Police Station was down to the [military] area and I can only tell you that all of that beach that I recently bought is eroding at a tremendous rate.” Weatherhead continued: “When we told a meeting of Coastal (CZMU) that we need some sort of emergency permission, their answer is that we have to get an engineer; and meanwhile, you could be waiting a long time to get permission from Coastal. I am not asking to build a groyne, I am asking to build a wall of boulders to stop my erosion.” He said a British company he hired advised that the erosion was being caused by various groynes constructed along the coast towards Oistins. “I thought there would be some sympathy [from CZMU] to get something done in a hurry but I haven’t seen any sympathy. At one stage, I told Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw I would have no alternative but to close the hotel because I am refunding people and doing all sorts of things. I am at that intersection where the thing is eroding all the time and nothing is happening,” said Weatherhead, who also owns four other hotels – Timeout At the Gap, Sugar Cane, Worthing Court and Bel Jou in St Lucia. He said that if he were forced to close Savannah, he would try to absorb as many of its employees as possible into his other properties. Weatherhead disclosed that the situation had already begun to affect bookings at Savannah. He noted that following Hurricane Beryl, hoteliers who owned beachfront properties had been allowed to carry out repairs to damage caused by the storm under emergency provisions. “I am only working to a point where it is only economical to close or a situation where somebody would say ‘we got a big problem up there,’” the hotelier warned. Weatherhead said he had also erected a makeshift tent on the seaward side to prevent guests using the beach from injuring themselves on the uneven terrain. When contacted, CZMU Director Dr Leo Brewster said the area east of Drill Hall Garrison, which belongs to Savannah, had been experiencing slow erosion for about 18 months. “It was a combination, primarily from the Sargassum impact, where it first started to erode and then it got heavily impacted this year earlier up when we had the green water that was affecting Carlisle Bay as well. It was a lot of erosion that hit down there and since then, the [area has] continued to have slow erosion,” Dr Brewster told Barbados TODAY. “They are approaching a crisis point now because one of their locations is getting very close to the guard wall. But we had a meeting with them and advised them what they were supposed to do and to my knowledge, they haven’t gotten back in contact with the Coastal Zone Unit.” Asked what Savannah was expected to do, he replied: “They are supposed to contact a coastal engineer and get advice on what sort of recommendations or suggestions would be so that we can meet and discuss with them…because they have to perform the works if they want to do any sort of protective work in front of their property.” “They, as a developer, have to apply to Town Planning for permission to do whatever works may be proposed. But they can call… meet with us once they have a coastal engineer, so we can discuss what options may be suitable to them.” (EJ)