BELIZE CITY, Thurs. June 2, 2022
Earlier this week the Supreme Court of Belize denied an application by the attorneys for Stake Bank Enterprise Ltd. for leave to appeal the court’s decision in March of this year to strike out the company’s claim for judicial review of an Environmental Clearance Plan (EPC) granted by the Government of Belize to Portico Enterprise Limited, which is aiming to construct a cruise port that would directly compete with Stake Bank’s cruise terminal. On April 26, Stake Bank Enterprise Limited, the developers of the Port Coral cruise ship facility, applied, via attorney Andrew Marshalleck SC, for leave to appeal the decision, but on Monday, Justice Lisa Shoman dismissed that application.
Stake Bank first made its application for judicial review back in July of 2021, asserting that the granting of Portico’s ECP was unlawful and did not meet statutory requirements. Its lawyers, Glenn D. Godfrey and Company, represented by William Lindo, Jr., at the time managed to get leave for their case to be heard, but Justice Shoman ruled that they failed to file the substantive application within the mandated 14-day-period. Lindo had insisted, however, that the application had been submitted online before the deadline.
The application was eventually struck down, and the request to appeal Justice Shoman’s decision has now also been denied, thus ending this particular legal effort by Stake Bank Enterprise Limited to have an inquiry launched into the economic viability of the construction of other cruise ports within Belize City. This is unless that company decides to take its matter to the Court of Appeal.
Another interested party in this case is Waterloo Holdings Limited, the proposed developer of a cruise and cargo port facility at what is now the Port of Belize Limited. That company’s effort to receive environmental clearance for their project was rejected by the National Environmental Appraisal Committee (NEAC). They have appealed to Minister of Sustainable Development, Hon. Orlando Habet, but have since decided to submit a new application. Habet has indicated that, in this case, the appeal will have to be withdrawn.
Recently the Minister of Tourism has pointed to the need for docking facilities in the country that can facilitate the major cruise ships they are in conversations with, and reduce the use of tendering. (He did not indicate whether his ministry had assessed the potential environmental impact of such a move and whether the additional revenue would justify the damage that could be caused.) The construction of Stake Bank Enterprises Limited’s Port Coral facility is well underway and is located about 12 miles from the development at Port of Magical Belize. Between the two is Waterloo’s proposed cruise and cargo facility.