Montego Bay's mayor urged to address city's problems

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I would like to take this opportunity to wholeheartedly commend the head of the Jamaica Labour Party's minority side of the St James Parish Council, Councillor Charles Sinclair, for being a very vocal, responsible and professional.

He has publicly urged the mayor of Montego Bay, Councillor Glendon Harris, to stop playing partisan politics with the operations of the council and begin to address the plethora of problems that are facing the city and parish of St James. And Councillor Sinclair is absolutely correct on the blatant non-performance of Mayor Harris.

The Charles Gordon Market is in a deplorable and scandalous state. The St James abattoir has been closed for the past seven years, which is an outright disgrace. The streets of the city are not being cleaned and the manholes are often blocked. When it rains, some streets are flooded, causing traffic jams.

The Montego Bay Transportation Centre needs to be expanded to allow more taxis and buses to use the hub daily. Some of MoBay's streets have no name sign and others are in need of repair. The Bryon Leslie Fish Market is filthy and needs 'whole-scale' renovation.

The Montego Bay Civic Centre remains largely unused. This is unacceptable, as the facility needs to be properly marketed so that the council can receive some revenue from this landmark building in the city. A bistro, art gallery and food court could be established and leased to the relevant person(s) as approved by the St James Parish Council and mayor.

Councillor Sinclair had so many successes in his stint as mayor. I am certain he would be only too willing to give some constructive advice to the current non-performing mayor.

As mayor, Sinclair implemented a new traffic system for the city; a special mayor's charity fund was established by him; some parish council roads were repaired; a full complement of municipal wardens were hired; and the council was computerised.

As the current minority leader, Sinclair has been a hard-working councillor who is not afraid to speak the truth regarding the failures of the council and that of Glendon Harris over the past year. I salute Councillor Sinclair for remaining vociferous in this regard.

We need a professional, honest, visionary, accountable and transparent St James Parish Council, along with a mayor who will perform and not merely warm the chair.

I urge Councillor Sinclair to continue to push Mayor Harris to perform, or he should ask the mayor to graciously step aside in the interest of the development of Montego Bay and parish.

ROBERT DALLEY,

Montego Bay, St James

robertdally1@hotmail.com