Soldiers want to leave Up Park Camp - Golding

Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer

Prime Minister Bruce Golding has sought to explain the planned relocation of the Corporate Area-based Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) to lands at Caymanas, St Catherine, saying that the urgent need for a new urban plan and upgrading of the antiquated military base at Up Park Camp influenced the Government's decision.

Golding told the House that the proposal to relocate the JDF came from the army, and was placed on his desk within three months of his administration taking power in 2007.

He said Up Park Camp could not be considered a military base as the layout, structures and facilities were established up to two centuries ago and were not appropriate for a modern military base.

"The JDF headquarters is in urgent need of reconstruction," the prime minister said.

Golding, who was responding to questions tabled by Opposition Spokesman on National Security Peter Bunting, also said the Corporate Area has largely exhausted its room for expansion. He said this was reflected in the development of Portmore, St Catherine, which now has a population of more than 200,000.

Golding said the Urban Develop-ment Corporation (UDC) has been given the task of fleshing out the plans, which is still at a concept stage.

According to Golding, rapid urbanisation within the Kingston and St Andrew/Portmore/Spanish Town triangle suggests the inevitable emergence of a large metropolis which will comprise more than a third of the country's total population.

"How this emerges must be planned, rather than simply allowed to happen, and the Caymanas corridor is critical to this planning process," Golding said.

"Developments which have taken place in the Corporate Area, particularly over the last 50 years, have been project driven, and in the absence of an overall plan to guide the growth and development of the nation's capital and its environs," Golding told Parliament.

But Golding said the cost associated with the relocation has not yet been worked out. "This is subject to detailed designs that have not yet been undertaken," he said.

However, he sought to reassure Parliament that the expenses would not be a burden on the national budget as the private-sector investors would be lured to pump capital in the development.