Letter to the Editor
There are no private beaches in the Cayman Islands
Friday, August 27, 2004
Dear Sir,
Every few years, the idea of private beach land rears its ugly head in
Cayman.
We now see this idea being preached by the Westin Hotel on West Bay Beach.
They claim they own the beach land and may throw anyone off “their” beach as
they choose.
Unfortunately, there are not many people still around that took part in the
formation of the Land Adjudication Law, or the formation of the Cadastral
Survey Project that finished in the Cayman Islands over 25 years ago.
I am one of the few who were involved in all of these projects, and it
seems that most people of the Cayman Islands have forgotten their heritage.
During the formation of the Adjudication Law, it was decided that when a
dispute arose about boundaries, there would need to be a clear-cut set of
rules established to govern the settlement of the disputes.
One of the most often fought over boundaries in the Cayman Islands was the
boundary known as “ the sea”. When looking to settle the question of sea
boundaries, the Adjudication Law set down the following: no land may extend to
the water line, only to the high-water mark surrounding the Islands.
The high-water mark was established by Cadastral survey as the line of
debris left by the high tide along any shoreline. Along West Bay Beach, the
high water mark is as much as 50 feet inland in some places, while at other
spots it is as close to the sea as 10 feet. It depends on the type of
shoreline at any spot you choose to stand on.
It was also decided that ironshore would have a setback of several feet so
that the public could walk the shoreline anytime they wished to. The basis of
these setbacks was taken from British Common Law and the prevailing customs of
the Cayman Islands at the time of the Cadastral Survey. These laws have not
been changed.
What these laws preserved was the right of access and right of travel on
all – ALL - of Cayman’s beach lands for the use of the people of these islands
as the people had used the shoreline to enter the sea or to fish from the
shoreline as they had done for hundreds of years.
The confusion about seashore rights came about because of the way that many
land documents were written in the old days. The documents often said the land
was bounded by the sea and many developers tried to claim their lands went
into the water. We even saw in the past that some developers put up fences
right down into the water to keep the public off the beach areas. This lasted
until the first one was taken to court and made to remove the fence that ran
past the high water mark.
There is NO PRIVATE BEACH in the Cayman Islands. If the public stays below
the high water mark to walk, swim, sit, or stand, they cannot be interfered
with by hotel staff or even by the police as long as they behave in a peaceful
manor.
We do have some laws about the beaches which have to be obeyed, such as the
anti-nudity clause, the litter law, and foul language laws. If these laws are
obeyed, the public has the right of access and use of any beach in the Cayman
Islands.
It amazes me when I hear that police supported the hotel staff in removing
people from the beach. Taking for granted the right of the hotels to restrict
the use of their property and equipment to the people staying at the hotel;
both the hotels and the police had better bone up on the laws.
If Caymanians are kept from their rights of beach access or right of beach
usage, there will trouble in paradise. It took a demonstration the last time
this arose, and it can happen again.
Bruce Orr
Cadastral Survey
Field Surveyor and Demarcater
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