The Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados, has denounced the planned sale by the Government of Barbados of the civic centre in historic Holetown, St. James to private ownership for the construction of a hotel.
CTUSAB in a press release voiced its disappointment and strong objection to the sale of the historic site at Holetown stating that “the Government of Barbados is to be highly criticized and censured on this insensitive and unpopular decision”.
The union referenced government’s ongoing efforts to preserve historic sites in Barbados such as the Rock Hall Freedom Village in St. Thomas, the Newton Slave Burial Ground and the Golden Square- Freedom Park in Bridgetown along with efforts to enhance Speightstown arguing that this contradicts these intiatives and questioned why there is the move to preserve historic memories at these locations on one hand but not at Holetown.
CTUSAB has urged government to move ‘to have Holetown designated as a UNESCO historic site, in much the same way that this designation has been applied to historic Bridgetown and its Garrison. With Holetown being the landing place for the first settlers to the island’. Adding that ‘government’s commit to the sale of the Civic Centre at Holetown, constitutes a blatant disregard for preservation. CTUSAB calls on Civil Society organizations, politicians on both sides of the political divide, members of the clergy and members of the public, to mount pressure on the Government of the day, to reverse its decision to sell the civic centre at Holetown’.
Recently there have been several calls against the development from interest groups, conservationists and historians over the proposed construction of a high rise hotel at Holetown.
