Peter Espeut | Jamaica’s fifteenth parish

The last time a new civil parish was carved out in Jamaica was in 1901 when the Palisadoes peninsula – including the town of Port Royal – was constituted as a separate parish called Port Royal, bringing the total number of parishes in Jamaica to 15.

You may recall that prior to 1867 Jamaica was divided into 22 civil parishes, each governed by an elected parish vestry; among them was the parish of Port Royal (one of the seven original parishes created in 1664), which stretched from the Palisadoes Peninsula north through the Port Royal Mountains (yes, that is why they are still called the Port Royal Mountains) incorporating Mavis Bank and beyond (up to the Grand Ridge of the Blue Mountains).

Port Royal was an important parish, as the town was the first capital of Jamaica under the English (and the fourth capital of Jamaica since its annexation by the Spanish). The parish was entitled to elect three persons to the Jamaica House of Assembly (all the other parishes except St Catherine were only allowed two).

In 1867 under the reforms of Sir John Peter Grant (1807-1893), Governor of Jamaica (1866-1874), after the Morant Bay Rebellion, the 22 parishes were collapsed into 14; the Palisadoes peninsula – including the town of Port Royal – was merged into the parish of Kingston, while the rest of the parish (including the Port Royal Mountains) was merged into St Andrew.

And so it remained until 1901 when, at the request of the Royal Navy – which operated a huge military base at the tip of the Palisadoes – the peninsula became the separate parish of Port Royal, and came under the direct rule of the Royal Navy.

At the time the peninsula was a series of sandy spits and islets, including what the Spaniards called the Cayo de Carena (Careening Cay, where the town is) and the Cayo de los Hicacos (Sugar Plum Cay, where Plumb Point is).

NO ROAD

Needless to say there was no road along the strip to the town, and there was no piped water supply; for 350 years sailors in a specially fitted navy boat would daily ferry water from the Rock Spring (by Rock Fort, which still feeds the closed Rockfort Mineral Bath) to supply the needs of the base and the town.

After taking over the management of the new parish, in 1902 the Navy laid a water pipe from Rock Spring to the town and naval base. The construction of a road along the Palisadoes began about 1930 using prison labour. Gangs of prisoners completely filled in the gaps between the sand spits, and the first part of the Palisadoes Road opened on October 28, 1936; but even in 1937 a prize was offered for the man who could ride a motorcycle from Kingston to Port Royal since there was no real through road. The first Kingston-to-Port Royal all-year all-weather road was completed in 1938. The present road was built in 1957-1958.

Construction of a terrestrial civilian airport on the Palisadoes Strip began in 1938 (just before World War II) to replace the seaplane base at Harbour Head (today the old seaplane terminal is used as the Sports Club for the staff of the Carib Cement Company). In 1940 after the war began, the Fleet Air Arm took over the site and built the Royal Navy Air Station near Plumb Point which became the Palisadoes International Airport after the war. The Royal Navy handed over to the airport to the government for civilian use in 1944, before war had come to an end.

RE-MERGED

In 1946 Port Royal as a separate parish again went out of existence, as it was re-merged with the parish of Kingston, which now became known as “Kingston and Port Royal”. The naval base had long closed, and the navy had withdrawn.

I provide this history because I hear it being said that the proposal to make Portmore Jamaica’s 15th parish will create the first new civil parish since 1867. Not so!

I find the indecent haste with which this Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government is rushing through legislation to create a new parish strange (and more than a bit fishy), as no JLP administration in our history has ever taken local government seriously. There must be some ulterior motive.

As per usual with the Holness regime, there has been no meaningful public consultation – especially with the residents – and there is no clear development plan for the new parish – or any other parish for that matter.

I am having a hard time understanding the attitude of the Holness regime towards local government.

For parishes to have meaning they must be able to raise their own funding, and must operate outside the heavy control of central government, but must not be in conflict with it.

What we have now is confusion, where there is lack of clarity (nay, overlap) between the roles of parish councillor and parliamentarian. As I have written numerous times over the more than thirty years of this weekly column, cabinet (the executive) introduces almost all the legislation which comes before parliament, thereby usurping the role of the legislative branch of government; and in response, the members of parliament usurp the role of parish councillors, operating at the local level, distributing work, and nominating school board reps, just to give two examples. We were promised clear job descriptions of MPs within the first 100 days two governments ago, but that remains another unfulfilled (nay, broken) promise.

If the Holness government wishes to strengthen local governance then they should give municipal councils more authority, and get the MPs out of the way of councillors, rather than creating a fifteenth impotent and ineffective local authority.

But then other agendas seem to be playing out: skullduggery at work!

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and an antiquarian. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com