SaveHopegardens Protest Letters

December 25, 1999

Kindly record our objection to the proposed Country Club Development at Hope Gardens on the grounds that:

1) These lands are zoned as PUBLIC OPEN SPACES and are heavily used by all sectors of the Jamaican community.

2) PUBLIC OPEN SPACES need to be expanded for the social, cultural and psychic well-being of our growing population, not contracted.

3) The EIA has ignored the fact that these lands are managed by the Superintendent of Gardens and for which the said Superintendent of Gardens, the Management Committee of the Zoo and the supporting NGOs have development and expansion plans.

4) Truly putting all the Jamaican people and their best long-term interests first demands the abandonment of this essentially narrow-based self-serving scheme.

Daphne & Peter Abrahams

Protest Letter from Gloria Escoffery

December, 1999

Please add my name to list of objectors to the proposed Development on HOPE GARDEN LANDS; also my concern re arrogance in the way this scheme is being rushed through to implementation without giving the public time to voice horror at the lack of responsibility shown for the heritage due to future generations. One can only hope that this will serve as a wake up call to those responsible for the maintenance of the gardens and urge them to demand adequate funds to proceed with plans for future rehabilitation, expansion and development.

This issue has many facets. One is the question of public health, another, the depreciation of property owned by residents of Hope Pastures, yet another the need for re- development of down town Kingston so that inner city dwellers will no longer be living in such a state of crisis that they turn to illegal squatting. But the most urgent need is for this short sighted, in a sense criminal abuse of political power be terminated before the developers are allowed to interfere with the environment and destroy the natural landscape background which is one of the greatest assets of Hope Gardens.

This site is irreplaceable; its value to Kingstonians and indeed to visitors from all over Jamaica, not to mention our visitors can not be measured in commercial terms as a means of coping with the current financial crisis for which the present government is largely responsible.

Gloria Escoffery