The president of the St David’s Island Historical Society is asking communications giant Google to consider somewhere other than Annie’s Bay, St David’s for their cable landing station.

“Building this anywhere near Annie’s Bay to the north, either side of the road, up the hill or to the west would be a travesty,” Rick Spurling said.

Google has announced plans to bring their communications cable Nuvem onto Bermuda at Devonshire Bay, Bermuda and Annie’s Bay, Bermuda.

However, Google representative Fiona Beck said last night the site of a landing station for people to work in while they monitor the cable is still undecided.

“The location for the cable landing station is still under discussion, with the St David’s area being a key area of interest,” Ms Beck said.

Mr Spurling called the little bay, half a mile north of Clearwater Beach, “sacrosanct”.

Annie’s Bay is the last remaining bay from old St David’s. Much of the area was bulldozed or rearranged when the American military took over in 1941.

There is now a park on the site, and last year, a memorial was placed there to remember St David’s Islanders who gave up their land to help the Allies fight the Second World War.

Before the war, the land was owned by Mortimer “Tommy” Fox, known as the King of St David’s.

Widely respected, Mr Fox’s surrender of his land to the American military encouraged others in the neighbourhood to do the same.

His house was demolished in the 1950s when Clearwater Beach was created.

“There is lots of space not far away, that has already been destroyed by the US base,” the retired lawyer and politician said. “To me, this may require a slight adjustment by the Bermuda Land Development Corporation and Google in exchange for a dramatic benefit for St David’s and Bermuda in conserving a natural beauty spot, but also some very significant history which cannot just be trampled upon, once again.”

Mr Spurling said there was a plan put out by the BLDC that fully embraced Annie’s Bay as a park.

“That is incompatible with this cable unless the term ‘Annie’s Bay’ is used loosely,” Mr Spurling said.

The two landing points in St David’s and Devonshire were authorised by Bermuda’s Cable Communications Protection Act 2020 with the creation of a submarine cable protection zone.

All five of Bermuda’s active telecom cables arrive at these same two locations.

Google earlier told The Royal Gazette they had to purchase land for their communications facility, rather than lease it, because their subsea cable was a long-term commitment. The Nuvem cable will stretch from South Carolina to Bermuda to Portugal.

Mr Spurling said plans have been under way to extend Annie’s Bay Park, past the beach, up to the sewage plant and then up a nearby hill by 100 yards.

“We want to include the beautiful views of Cooper’s Island, once enjoyed by the many islanders who lived on that hill prior to 1941,” Mr Spurling said. “Some 250 residents lost their livelihoods, their homes and their lives during the Second World War.”

He has reported the Google cable to the St David’s Community Plan Steering committee, and also approached the BLDC. The BLDC had not responded to questions from The Royal Gazette by press time.

Google will be holding a town hall meeting to discuss the development on November 9 at 5.30pm at the Open Door Christian Assembly at 13-17 Tommy Fox Road, St David’s.