Stirrings in Papine

The KSAC is on a roll. Not only has it done right by Sylvia Grant, it is doing something in Papine, the town in east St Andrew that has been allowed to go to rot.

This newspaper has recently been highlighting the mess of the area, where there is a teaching hospital, two university campuses, and a vocational training institute run by a government agency.

Well, somebody has stirred. For the past week, repairs have been ongoing on sidewalks as well as at the park in the Papine Square, even if it all appears a bit haphazard.

The square, though, remains strewn with garbage and no one seems keen to enforce the public-health laws against businesses that dispose of rubbish on the streets, or those which keep it inappropriately on their premises. Vermin thrive in this environment.

Now that something is happening, we wonder if it is safe to hope Papine can become a decently clean environment and that it might be transformed into a university township with a pedestrian-only square. There is already a road that bypasses the square.

A deputy head of the Faculty of the Built Environment at the University of Technology says they have plans for Papine's transformation.

What is not clear is how evolved are these plans and what level of engagement, if any, there is between the stakeholders of Papine, including the parliamentarians, local-government councillors, community members, and institutions.

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