Montague criticises Trelawny Parish Council operations

Robert Montague, minister of state in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for local government, has criticised operations at the Trelawny Parish Council for the missed deadlines for the development of the cruise ship pier and the redevelopment of the town.

Montague blamed the council for the lack of public information about the town's redevelopment, including the multimillion-dollar cruise ship pier. He pointed out that he made personal checks within Falmouth and found that residents were not fully aware of the progress of the development.

Deadlines

He was addressing a stakeholders meeting at the Trelawny Parish Council on Wednesday. The meeting was aimed at creating a plan of action to find solutions to some of the problems surrounding the development. Missed deadlines in the redevelopment process also came in for mention.

"Everybody is marking off territory and everybody is dancing around, and the timeline for December is going to be missed, and there is going to be a new timeline, and if we con-tinue in the same way that is going to be missed also," he argued.

The minister was speaking against the background of the development of the cruise ship pier and the redevelopment of the town of Falmouth to be ready to receive its first cruise ship in December 2010. This has now been pushed back to January 2011.

He said he would not allow the image of the country to be compromised and, as such, a new approach has to be taken. The new approach would need to have open lines of communications between stakeholders and residents, he said.

Blame

"There has to be a conference of minds in the town, there has to be everybody singing from the same hymn sheet, there has to be open lines of communications between stakeholders and agencies," he opined.

"The feeling I am getting is that everybody is in their separate corner doing their own thing, and there is not a coming together of what ought to be done. I put that blame squarely at the feet of the parish council," he said.

He noted that the council is the local authority and, since no development could be taken without its knowledge, it must take the lead role and be the coordinating body. Montague then went on to issue a mandate to the administrators within the Trelawny parish council, including the need for a monitoring committee that meets monthly.

- JIS