During a recent appearance on the weekly *Browne and Browne Show* broadcast this past Saturday, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne laid out a clear, nuanced stance on two parallel public petitions related to coastal public access, a long-simmering community and environmental priority across the island nation. Browne confirmed he would formally welcome environmental activist Eli Fuller and deliver a public audience at the Office of the Prime Minister to accept a national beach access petition that has collected roughly 4,000 signatures from local residents, despite past public disagreements between the two figures on coastal development policies. The prime minister openly acknowledged that unimpeded public access to the island’s shorelines remains a persistent gap in several high-profile locations, noting his administration has already publicly committed to rolling back unauthorized access restrictions where feasible. He specifically highlighted the Mill Reef coastal parcel as one unresolved site, where he has already opened preliminary discussions with property stakeholder Ralph Isham to craft a mutually acceptable framework that balances private security requirements for the site and the public’s longstanding right to shoreline access. Browne also cited two recent administration wins for public coastal access: officials successfully intervened to restore full public access at Pearns Point, and recently turned down a formal request from a member of the prominent Rothschild family to permanently close a public beach access path adjacent to an ongoing $30 million private coastal development, whose exact location he chose not to disclose. The prime minister’s remarks arrived against the backdrop of ongoing public debates over the Peace Beach project, a controversial development that features a purpose-built artificial shoreline and engineered reef system. Browne noted he had received unconfirmed third-party reports alleging Fuller led a group of community members to Peace Beach to lobby adjacent business owners to sign a targeted petition opposing the specific development, though he explicitly recognized Fuller’s formal denial of that activity and conceded the initial uncorroborated tip may have been inaccurate. While Browne emphasized that Fuller retains every legal right to organize a petition targeting the Peace Beach development, he stated categorically that he would not formally accept or entertain that separate submission at the prime minister’s office, drawing a firm line between the broad, island-wide push for standardized public beach access and the targeted campaign against the single Peace Beach project.
PM Browne backs Antigua and Barbuda beach access petition but rejects one targeting Peace Beach
