I, too, have signed the petition. But after downloading and reading the actual report commissioned by Sandals - I am not nearly as worried as I was when I heard the word JETTY. I pictured a huge rock pile extending out from the beach at the southern end of Sandals's property - one, ruining the unbroken view of beach/sea - and two, just blocking the flow of sand down the beach - and selfishly depriving their neighbors of their sand. But that is NOT what they are proposing.
Below is pic from the report that should help crystalize the discussion. It shows the locations recommended for Sandals to add the various structures to keep the replenished sand from eroding away. Almost everything is OFF-SHORE and UNDERWATER.
a)The main one is an underwater breakwater 175m long made of large boulders running parallel to the beach about 140m offshore. It is designed to be about 0.3m below mean sea level (MSL) in water about 2m deep. It should be underwater except at very lowest tides.
b)The other two are underwater artificial reefs at 58m and 178m length, made of something called BioRock. They are also roughly parallel to the beach about 170m and 250m offshore, respectively. They are in water about 2.5m deep and designed to be about 1-1.5m below MSL. They are less of a breakwater because they are not solid and farther under the surface of the water.
c)The final one is a 26m extension to the existing so-called northern groyne. It will be a typical jetty, but covered with timber so Sandals can use it for a dock for their water sports toys. It appears to be very minor.
d)They had also originally planned for 5 groynes (labelled A-E in the pic) along the beach that would be UNDER THE SAND, not the water. But their study found that the sand movement was the same with/without these. So in their final recommendation to Sandals, these sand groynes were removed from the plan.
