Management and staff of the Bridgetown Cruise Terminal Inc. (BCTI) were left in shock yesterday morning when they arrived at work to find themselves locked out of the Port due to an ongoing dispute.
The situation is apparently due to a longstanding disagreement between both the management of the BCTI and the Barbados Port Authority (BPA) over control of the terminal.
It came to a head yesterday when BCTI’s Chief Executive Officer Geoffrey Roach and his staff were denied entry upon arrival.
“This morning, as I was preparing to come down for work, one of my staff who was due to come down for around 6:30 a.m. called to say that they were refused entry to the property,” he told the media.
Saying that the terminal’s attorneys had been contacted on the situation, he expressed confidence that the “misunderstanding” would soon be cleared up.
“Currently, there is a misunderstanding between ourselves and the Port regarding the lease for the cruise terminal to operate at the Port and we are continuing to operate as legitimate operators of the facility. The Port however has a different opinion on that and our lawyers are addressing the matter,” he said.
Stating that the discussions have been ongoing for a while, Roach insisted that his company would challenge any move to discontinue its contract for operating at the Bridgetown facility.