Quicker building permits coming
Published:Friday | April 15, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Carl Gilchrist, Gleaner Writer
OCHO RIOS, St Ann:
JAMAICANS WILL see an improvement in the time it takes to process applications for buildings and subdivisions with the new Building Act being introduced by the Government.
This is one of several new measures being implemented as part of local government reform, according to Minister with responsibility for Local Government Affairs, Robert Montague.
Speaking during the installation ceremony of councillor Vinnette Robb as mayor of St Ann's Bay on Wednesday, Montague said the local government reform amendments aim to entrench the system of local government in Jamaica's constitution.
"There are 82 pieces of legislation that affect the system of local government; we are going to be repealing 14 pieces and replacing them with three acts of parliament that have now received Cabinet permission for them to be drafted," Montague declared.
"Under those three acts, it will define what is local government, because local government is not yet defined in law; it will give the authority to the council as to who they swim with and who they sink with; because right now, the local authorities have no say in whom they employ."
Montague said the Government was in the final stages of promulgating the new Building Act, which proposes a speeding-up of the process.
90-day approvals
The minister told the gathering that 90 per cent of all building and subdivision applications to parish councils are approved within 90 days, as against 18 months previously.
"The Building Act says any building under 3,000 sq ft no longer has to go to Kingston; it now resides with the local parish council. Any subdivision, nine lots and under, that authority now rests and resides with the local authority," Montague said.
He said subdivisions consisting of nine lots and under, make up 70 per cent of subdivisions.
Meanwhile, Robb who is the People's National Party (PNP) councillor for the Calderwood division in South East St Ann, was installed as St Ann's Bay's first female mayor.
She was chosen by fellow councillors to fill the position after former mayor Ivan Anderson resigned the post after being charged by the police late last year. Anderson has since been acquitted of the charge.
The ceremony, which took place at the Anglican Church Hall in St Ann's Bay, in close proximity to the council building, was attended by mayors of Falmouth Collen Gager and of Port Maria Richard Creary, and several members of the local council.
Montague, who oversaw the installation, reminded councillors that they were servants of the people, and encouraged them to put party differences aside in the execution of their duties.