By Carlena Knight
While officials from the Developmental Control Authority and the Antigua and Barbuda Fisheries Division are engaged in meetings to discuss measures that could be applied to address the ongoing sand mining dispute off Maiden Island, one hotel company has sought to distance itself from the issue.
Ian Steele, the Vice President of Infrastructure and Operations at Jumby Bay Island reached out to OBSERVER media yesterday to clear the air on their position regarding the matter.
“It’s on social media that we might have been involved, but we are not in any way. We don’t approve of it and when we found out it was happening, we located the contractor and asked him to stop immediately about 3:30 pm yesterday,” he said.
The matter made the rounds on social media on Tuesday after George Whener, the United Progressive Party (UPP) caretaker for St. George, shared videos and images on Facebook of a government sanctioned sand mining project dredging in a North East Marine Management Area (NEMMA) protected zone off Maiden Island.
When the news broke, Jumby Bay received some heat and was accused of being involved in the illegal actions.