What’s preventing Portmore from becoming a parish?

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Since 2007, the People’s National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) have expressed opposite approaches to strengthening Portmore’s “human and physical resources” to “be given the legal framework and authority to unleash the full economic potential of the area, and create a better quality of life for our Portmore citizens” (PNP 2007 Manifesto). For the JLP, it was via the status as Jamaica’s 15th parish, while the PNP promoted the concept of a third city.

Portmore’s mayor further adds insult to the work of the PNP that controlled the Portmore municipality for three-quarters of its 17 years of existence as a municipality since 2003. One would have thought, by now, that the municipality would have had the necessary developmental plans “to provide the essential services for the population”.

In fact, the 2007 PNP manifesto Shaping the Future Together ... On course to the Quality Society, subsection: ‘Mega Growth Platforms’, spotlights the mayor’s ignorance or denial of the PNP’s own development plans that include “civic and commercial centres, recreational and cultural facilities, ... [which] must be empowered to provide the essential services for the population”.

The recent resolution on Portmore as a parish by Minister of Local Government and Urban Renewal, Desmond McKenzie, includes the establishment of a special select committee of the House of Representatives to examine the motion to this effect. This committee should be viewed as a delay tactic, as both political parties already know what is needed in Portmore.

McKenzie’s resolution is not only pussyfooting around the issue, but failed in following the precedence of Jamaica’s last and youngest parish, Manchester. According to the National Library of Jamaica, “on November 29, 1814, the residents of Mile Gully, May Day and Carpenter’s Mountain, brought a petition before the House of Assembly asking that a new parish be established.” They further requested that the new parish be established with a town capital that could provide them with facilities to carry out their religious, civic, administrative and judicial needs, as the closest public building was 40 miles away.

The petition further states that the “hill country” comprising the eastern portion of St Elizabeth and the western portions of the parishes of Vere and Clarendon “be constituted as a separate parish”.

The parish of Manchester was created 14 days later on December 13, 1814. The Manchester Vestry (now known as the Manchester municipality), the governing body of the parish, met for the first time some 18 months later, on “July 4, 1816, where their first order of duty was to begin plans for the layout of a parish capital.” It only took 14 days between the tabling of the petition and the establishment of the parish of Manchester. The absence of a timeframe by Mr McKenzie’s resolution can have one to bet that the next local government elections will be held before the committee comes to any acceptable decisions.

The parish of Manchester was established without all the prerequisites that the current mayor of Portmore and the PNP are using to prevent its formation. As a matter of fact, the prerequisites recommended would have prevented the existence of Manchester.

DUDLEY C MCLEAN II