28/03/2020
Potential Beach Closure
Premier Alden McLaughlin warned the public that he will ban public beach access if residents do not comply with the soft curfew regulations.
“That is not going to work, folks,” McLaughlin said at Saturday’s press briefing.
“If the commissioner tells us tomorrow, ‘Listen, I can’t enforce this,’ we are going to close the beaches. Then no one will get to go there and anybody that the commissioner’s people see there, they will know are in breach of the regulations,” McLaughlin said Saturday.
Under the regulations, the public is allowed 1.30 hours for exercise, walking the dog or a brief swim.
"You force the government to become more and more restrictive, to get it to a position where we can actually enforce the rules,” he said.
“If this present construct is not going to work, we are going to have to make adjustments to it, and that is going to mean that it is going to become necessarily more restrictive. It is the last thing we want to do, but we cannot expect the commissioner and his team to do more than they are currently doing,” the premier said.
“I appeal again for people to be reasonable, to exercise common sense and to follow the rules; otherwise, you make life harder for all of the people around you – all of your friends and neighbours and family who will be deprived of access to the beaches because you decided you want to have a party,” McLaughlin said.
“So nobody should be sunbathing on the beach. That is not in the spirit of those regulations,” he said.