Positive Action Movement Member Verne Maduro Dies

Verne Maduro, friend of the late British Virgin Islands political activist Noel Lloyd and member of the Positive Action Movement, has died.

Maduro, also known as ‘Old Oak’, was involved in the 1960s opposition movement led by Lloyd to stop British developer Kenneth Bates from owning large portions of land in the territory.

In 1967, then Administrator Martin S. Stavely signed two 199 year leases with a British Company, Bates-Hill, giving the company control over 60 acres of reclaimed land around the small mangrove-fringed Wickham’s Cay and almost three quarters of the island of Anegada.

Lloyd publicly opposed the Bates-Hill Agreement when it was rumoured that the company did not plan to allow locals access to the site except in a service capacity.

The Positive Action Movement was formed and following public meetings at the  Bandstand on the Old Recreation Ground in Road Town, demonstrations and marches to Government House and the Chief Minister’s Office, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) was finally persuaded to appoint a commission of inquiry.

The United Kingdom loaned the territory $5.8M to buy out Kenneth Bates-Hill’s contractual interest in 1970.