“Every candidate entering the fray in Bodden Town and expressing support for our fight against Dart’s proposed waste management facility in our district, is another voice defending Bodden Town and the environment of Grand Cayman”, stated Ms Arlene Whittaker, a Midland Acres resident and a leader of the Coalition to Keep BT Dump Free.  “Needlessly contaminating a new site, so far from the source of the island’s waste, just to get the George Town dump out of Camana Bay’s ‘backyard’, would be disastrous for Bodden Town and for our island.”  Ms Whittaker insists that “the GT dump can be affordably remediated where it is, and voters have the right to know where each candidate and party stands”.

Two recently declared candidates, Mr. Gregg Anderson and Mr. Charles Clifford, immediately expressed their unambiguous opposition to the BT dump plan.  Mr. Alain Beiner, Chairman of the BT Coalition, “…thanks both Charles and Gregg for promising to make their opposition to Dart’s dump plan a key plank in their campaign.  Both have been heavily involved in our fight since the Coalition was launched, and both continue as Coalition leaders”.

Aside from Mr. Anderson and Mr. Clifford, the PPM and its candidates in BT appear opposed to the dump as well.  “In March 2012, the PPM organized a public meeting at the BT Civic Centre against the dump plan, and invited Coalition leaders to speak”, states Mr. Beiner.  “Mr. Anthony Eden and Mr. Osbourne Bodden have continued to support the Coalition since.  We sincerely hope that the PPM’s opposition to the Dart dump deal – and to any plan which allows the island’s trash to be carted to BT, regardless of how Dart may ‘enhance’ the proposal — will be put forward prominently as a key plank in the PPM’s election campaign.”

Mr. Beiner adds:  “As well, on April 4th, the ex-UDP MLA for BT, Mr. Dwayne Seymour, now a candidate for the Peoples National Alliance (PNA), astonished everyone by claiming to be opposed to ‘any plan to put a waste management facility in BT’.  As a member of the previous UDP government which signed the dump deal with Dart – and who said nothing against his government’s decision — we can certainly question Seymour’s credibility and resolve.”

“But, in spite of his past failure to represent the interests of his district and regardless of the suspected electoral considerations which might explain his sudden claim”, continues Mr. Beiner, “the Coalition hopes that Seymour will now be a vociferous opponent of moving the island’s waste management facility to BT.”

Ms Whittaker outlined the Coalition’s election campaign strategy, while reaffirming its original mandate as a non-political, single-issue community organization.  “We have brought together hundreds of members of the community around one issue – to fight Dart’s plan to move the GT dump to BT – and around a common opinion on that single issue.  While we welcome support from any candidate, regardless of party affiliation, regardless of their view on any other issue, the Coalition does not have a mandate to endorse any particular candidate or party”.

Ms Whittaker went on to explain that “the Dart proposal to relocate the GT landfill to BT, promoted by Government, is certainly a political issue, and the Coalition’s fight against it is a political fight.  However, the Coalition itself is non-political as it does not have a position on any other political issue.  It welcomes support from anyone, regardless of their political affiliation and their opinion as to how our country should be governed.  The Coalition is independent of all political parties and candidates, but welcomes support from any of them”.

“Candidates vying for election to the Legislative Assembly”, added Mr. Beiner, “are running on a platform of multiple issues, campaigning around a programme for running our country, and the Coalition has no common opinion on how our country should be run”.

According to Mr. Clifford, “The Coalition will participate in the election campaign and will use the heightened political interest it creates to continue its fight against any waste management facility in BT, and to get its message across more broadly.  But my candidacy and campaign are quite independent of the Coalition, which won’t field candidates, and won’t advise in favour of any candidate or contending party”.

“However”, adds Mr. Anderson, “the Coalition will challenge all candidates and parties as to their position on the dump question.  It will make public the responses it receives, and will advise voters to not vote for any candidate or party which does not have a clear position against any plan to set up a waste management facility in BT – whether designated an ‘eco-park’, a ‘modern, lined landfill’, a ‘recycling centre’, or whatever –and which is not clearly committed to opposing the plan if elected.

Voters have the right to be informed, and to know who is prepared to betray BT and jeopardise our environment for the profits of a single, wealthy developer”.

Now that nominations have closed for the May 22nd general election, Coalition leaders plan to send out a challenge to each and every candidate, soliciting their position on the proposed BT waste facility, and asking those who oppose it for a clear commitment to defeat the plan if elected to the LA.  “This is all the more timely and essential”, insists Mr. Beiner, “in light of Mr. Seymour’s claim to have been ‘thrown under a bus’ by then premier McKeeva Bush.  Were other apparent supporters of Dart’s plan hiding their opposition from the public, and refusing to stand up against this reckless plan?”  The resulting answers will be distributed to the media and to the public.