‘Time come!’

In a wide-ranging address at the first in a series of People’s National Party’s ‘Time Come to Put People First’ town hall meetings at Bridgeport High School in Portmore on Sunday evening, Mayor of Portmore Leon Thomas blasted the Government, outlining a list of deficiencies which he says are yet to be addressed for the St Catherine community, amid talks for it to become a parish.

Last year, the joint select committee reviewing the proposal for Portmore to become Jamaica’s 15th parish met and approved the plan, which is to undergo further fine-tuning before being sent to the houses of Parliament.

But Thomas has scoffed at the proposal, arguing that the residents of Portmore need to be more involved in the discussions and the appropriate facilities must be in place before this is done.

Thomas said that in the last election there was a promise by Christopher Tufton, minister of health and wellness, to the people of Portmore, that a health centre would be built in Gregory Park. He says it is yet to be done.

“Time come for a proper health centre and also a hospital, a public hospital! Let no one tell you ‘bout Spanish Town. We are the largest developing community in the English-speaking Caribbean and we should have a hospital in Portmore!” Thomas said.

“How can you be talking about a parish with over 83,000 thousand people who live in Portmore. There is no hospital. There’s no proper health facility in Portmore,” he said.

Thomas also has other concerns.

“Time come for Portmore to get another fire station,” Thomas said.

He added: “We want to see proper infrastructure in Portmore. Look at Portmore! Di ‘mount of investment that is taking place in Portmore, di ‘mount of homes that is being built in Portmore, di amount of people that is living in Portmore and only one fire station, not even properly built, and sometimes no fire truck.”

Thomas said:“The truth of the matter, when the People’s National Party was talking about municipal status for Portmore, they engaged the residents of Portmore. The people of Portmore at the time had a say in putting the municipality together. This time around, there’s a talk about parish. They don’t engage the people. They want to do it by themselves.

“With that they have done a whole heap of things, say a whole heap of things, but the right thing to do was to tell where the boundary of Portmore is going is to be, so that we can have a better knowledge going forward,” he said.

Thomas also accused “the minister of local government of sabotaging the council with the Parochial Revenue Fund (PRF)”.

“Sometime over three (to) four months, there is no money coming to the council and without that, we can hardly function!” Thomas said.

“Time come for him to make certain that we get the money on a monthly basis, that we can respond to the needs of the people of Portmore,” he said.

For his part, Mark Golding, president of the PNP, repeated his position that in the discussion that has been going on about Portmore becoming a parish, “all I would say to you is this, let that be the decision of the people of Portmore”.

“The people of Portmore must make that decision, not the government of the day for whatever political reasons they may think make it something in their interest,” he said.

Golding reiterated that it was under the PNP’s leadership that special status for Portmore was established as a city municipality, with the legal right to directly elect its mayor.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com