WMC, Negril planning agency yet to receive market plan
IAN MYLES, chairman of the physical planning, environment and development committee of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation (WMC), says there is no commencement date on the near horizon for a fruit and vegetable market which the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development wants to build in Negril, some five years since money was committed for the project.
In January, Local Government and Rural Development Minister Desmond McKenzie had accused the Bertel Mooreled WMC for holding up the process by not signing off on drawings he claims were submitted.
While the corporation has failed to advance aspects of the proposed market site, including refusing to cover the cost of a soil test and serving the appropriate relocation notices, Moore stood his ground, arguing that the corporation had not yet received the plan to which McKenzie alluded.
“I don’t know why it’s taking so long for the plan to be released from the ministry,’’ Myles told The Gleaner four months later.
“No plan has come to council to date,” he said. “I haven’t heard anything about it and we had a planning committee meeting on (May 4), but it was not there,”he stated.
The Gleaner understands that before the plan is presented to the corporation, the Negril and Green Island Area Local Planning Authority (NGIALPA) has to sign off on it. However, NGIALPA Secretary General Althea McKenzie-Stewart said that while the authority had done preliminary work with the Ministry of Local Government to assist in designing the project, it has not yet approved the project.
“No. We haven’t yet received that plan,” McKenzie-Stewart said, responding to questions from The Gleaner.
THE APPROVAL PROCESS
Explaining the process, she said: “It will be recommended for approval or refusal by us to NEPA and then it goes to the requesting agencies for approval, which would be the municipal corporation, National Works Agency (NWA) and the National Environment & Planning Agency.
“Before the municipal corporation grants an approval, they would need the planning permission from NEPA, who will also need a building permission from the NWA, then the parish council would also need to get the approval from health and the fire departments,” she explained.
Despite the delay, Myles said that the corporation stands ready to expedite the plan when it is submitted.
Myles, who is also the councillor for the Little London Division, expressed regret at the slow progress, arguing that it will further prevent small business operators from gaining the opportunity to operate in a clean and suitable facility.
McKenzie had announced that $75 million had been allocated for the construction of the fruits and vegetables market in 2017. However, only a soil test, valued at $1 million, has since been done, funded by the Negril Chamber of Commerce.