By SEAN DOUGLAS Friday, April 25 2008

ENVIRONMENTALIST and former NAR Government Minister Eden Shand yesterday claimed the 2005 certificate of environmental clearance (CEC) issued by the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) for the Performing Arts Centre at the Princes Building Grounds, had no mention of a 60-room hotel.

The hotel had sparked protests by fired Trade Minister Dr Keith Rowley that Cabinet was unaware of the actions of Udecott which oversees construction of the centre. Shand spoke to reporters outside Whitehall yesterday minutes before Prime Minister Patrick Manning displayed a site-plan to back his claim that a hotel had always been part of the plan for the centre.

In contrast, Shand showed a design-plan which he said he had just got from the EMA, which he said did not include a hotel.

Shand claimed the approved design by a firm called HCP Architects had apparently been changed by the Chinese construction firm building the centre. The Udecott website, carrying a copyright logo dated 2006, mentions a hotel whose design representing a Chaconia flower corresponds to that presented by Manning.