In the growing stream of social media commentary surrounding what is happening at Woodford — the actual issues being raised are lost.

Questions relating to planning safeguards, environmental protections, consultation and enforcement are often overtaken by political back-and-forth, cheerleading, or comments that do not address the substance of the concerns. Among those weighing in are people who do not seem to understand or care to differentiate between those who break the law and those who abide by it.

The community has been raising the alarm and drawing attention to the fact that their rights have been trampled on since January 2025. The issues are very clear: the contractor at Woodford, Rayneau, ignored 2 stop orders delivered by the Planning and Development Authority (PDA). The first was delivered in June 2024 and the second in March 2025. PDA staff appeared on the Beyond the Headlines programme in February 2025 and declared that Rayneau would be taken to court for ignoring their orders. However, for reasons that remain unexplained, PDA did not follow through, and Rayneau was allowed to continue construction of a cement batching plant and the clearing of a path to a jetty in Woodford Bay — all without proper planning applications, approvals, or an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA).

The prime minister stated in his budget speech in Parliament in March 2025 that no work would take place in Woodford until PDA had approved an ESIA. An Initial Environmental Study (IES) was subsequently produced by JECO Caribbean — a scoping document that serves as the precursor to a full ESIA. However, once it was delivered to PDA in July 2025, no further work was requested of the consultant; yet PDA proceeded to treat the IES as though it were a full ESIA — a significant and unexplained departure from the process the prime minister had publicly committed to.

Planning approval was granted by PDA in November 2025, conditional upon Rayneau producing an Environmental and Social Monitoring and Management Plan (ESMMP) — a document that would establish the mitigation and monitoring of the environmental and health impacts of such a facility. Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell repeated those conditions when the conditional approval was published in the Government Gazette on 24th December 2025. Notably, the prime minister’s order covered only the asphalt plant and a jetty — it did not include the quarry, the concrete batching plant, or any other works. This did not, however, appear to deter Rayneau from pressing ahead with all of them, seemingly paying little heed to either the prime minister or the PDA.

At a press conference in January 2026, the prime minister appeared to indicate that an ESIA would no longer be required and made no mention of the outstanding ESMMP — which, to date, it appears — has still not been produced. More recently, Rayneau is now dispensing asphalt, marked by the dozens of trucks that line both sides of that dangerous Woodford corner, but the necessary emissions testing has not taken place. Rather than requiring Rayneau to cease operations until safety measures could be verified, PDA granted the company a two-week extension, purportedly — to bring in personnel from overseas to carry out the mandatory tests.

These actions — which effectively ignore the law and due process — are now being applauded by several prominent supporters of the governing party. They appear to be celebrating not just a construction project, but a disregard for the very processes designed to protect the communities they now criticise for speaking out.

Is this the kind of democracy we want — one where people who, in the words of Bob Marley, “stand up for their rights” are labelled as “haters” and dismissed as being “against progress”?

As Franklin D Roosevelt warned: “The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.”

The events unfolding in Woodford would suggest his warning deserves careful reflection.

Grenada Land Actors

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