Atkinson to the rescue - Trelawny fishermen get legal support from caretaker
Published:Wednesday | August 10, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Richard Morais, Gleaner writer
FALMOUTH, Trelawny
FALMOUTH FISHERMEN who were relocated in order to facilitate the development of the pier and have been forced to pay lease, now have attorney-at-law Patrick Atkinson in their corner.
The fishermen, through their president, Fritz Christie, were unable to fund the services of a lawyer. They are now pleased with the assistance from Atkinson, who is also the caretaker for the North Trelawny constituency.
"I will assist in any area that I can. it is a shame we are dealing with our Government who is supposed to be there to protect us as citizens. We need to get lawyers and get legal protection against the Government," Atkinson said.
He added: "What seems to have happened is that in order to disrupt their rights, that they had acquired on the property where they were, they gave them this idea of an upgrade to a different location, which really has the effect of taking away whatever rights they may have had in their own place, and put them in a place where there is no chance of them acquiring any rights... ."
Meanwhile, Mayor of Falmouth, Councillor Collen Gager, said the new location was the benevolence of the parish council.
"We hadn't collect a dime from it. we left it alone, we took our hands off it. It was too controversial for us. We did not negotiate for their piece of land. they were the ones who had to prove prescriptive rights," he said.
Gager, however, added that similarly to how persons who are evicted are sometimes given a temporary 'kotch' by friends or relative, that is what the parish council did for the fishermen. "Because of urgency for the project, we offered a space that would be a temporary site for the fishermen. we were aware of the development that would be coming to Falmouth, so we could not give them a permanent site, it is through courtesy we offered them a site," he said.
The mayor said if the noted attorney-at-law had come in and dialogue with the parish council, he would have got the facts instead of going out on a limb. Atkinson struck back, however, by saying there is no need for dialogue, adding that the council needs to correct the wrong that was done to the fishermen.
Christie said he has documents, which proves that the fishermen have prescriptive rights to the original site.