By ANGELO ARMBRISTER
Freeport News Reporter
Timeshare owners of the Freeport Resort and Club (FRC) held a peaceful demonstration on the front lawn of the Royal Oasis Resort property yesterday stating that they are now fed up and want to have their concerns heard and addressed.
A major issue within the group is that their access rights to a walking path near the International Bazaar is being violated, that the Bahamia Prospectus promises regarding real golf privileges are not being adhered to and the replacement of the Bahamia Beach Club path.
According to FRC Presi-dent Jack Grobowsky, certain rights of the timeshare owners have been taken away and they have been trying for more than four years to have those rights restored, but nothing has been done.
"This demonstration was conducted by five or more families that are here on vacation at Freeport Resort and Club and they are simply tired of having their rights taken away," he said.
Grobowsky noted that the group has exercised extreme patience thus far in trying to have their issues heard over the years through numerous letters of complaints to the Port Authority, the Bahamas Government as well as the resort owners, all of which have gone unanswered. This, he said, is no longer acceptable.
"We consider ourselves to be very patient because we have several grievances and a number of letters have been written over the years and we warned the buyers of the property that these were obligations they had to fulfil and they just seemed to have fallen on deaf ears," he said.
Disheartened by the course of events, Grobowsky said that if they are further ignored, they will be left with no other choice but to launch their complaints on an international scale.
This, he acknowledges could be damaging to the island's already struggling tourism industry and does not want it to go that far.
"We are here because we love Freeport and we know that it is not the Bahamian people that is doing this. It is the fault of developers who choose not to deliver on their promises and we believe that the Port Authority and the government make them follow through with the promises they make," shared Grobowsky.
"We simply want our privileges and amenities returned to us, especially the shortcut access to the International Bazaar."
The group's chairperson explained that it all began with the blockage of the Sunrise Highway by the former Driftwood Freeport, owners of the Royal Oasis resort to accommodate a man-made pool and enclose the property.
The former Driftwood owners cited guest safety for the main reason for the closure of the road.
Freeport Resort and Club is situated at the rear of the Royal Oasis property which is adjacent to the world famous tourist attraction International Bazaar and timeshare owners were once afforded the easement of making their way from the back property to the bazaar.
That is, they say, before the path was closed off, forcing them to walk around the property to get to the International Bazaar or anywhere else for that matter.
The problem, they maintain, was compounded with the closure of the resort back in September 2004 — leaving no access to the path to the bazaar through the property, taking away their golf privileges at the Ruby and Emerald golf courses and the beach club.
Grobowsky explained that even Harcourt Developments Limited, who recently acquired the Oasis property is following the same nagging practices of its predecessors.
Those three items he explained were all deciding factors in the purchase of their timeshare homes and now that they are no longer being enforced, " we feel like we've been misled, we buy and we are not getting what we paid for."
"When we bought into Freeport we could have easily walked 300 yards to the International Bazaar, we didn't need a car. We had the wonderful beach house where we had a lot of great times and parties and we had two golf courses, we don't have those any more so why come to Freeport," he said.
