PM Holness addresses Town Hall in Morant Bay, St. Thomas, Jamaica

“We believe in full asset utilization. We are poor because we do not use the God given assets we have.  We are poor because we fail to dream. In the past Governments spent a lot here with little to show for same.

I agree with MP James Robertson the “The people are the real assets ….

The road to development begins with a road. A trailer nearly blocked the road, so I may have been prevented from being here. Plan for the road is a dual carriage way .  Reduce corners and modify to almost new a roads to Cedar Valley. We have to build other things with the road.

Morant Bay

The town is chaotic, we cannot leave it that way. This is property here at the old Good Year Factory is 25 acres with a building. 
We want to make this town a heritage town. For example we have a Church which is 350 years old. There are two serious investors. Tourists need to come out of the hotels.” They would want to see other things.

Falmouth is being stifled by poor construction. We need to blend the old with the new.

Jobs

4000 to date. Two thousand by Port Authority. Portmore almost 5000 BPO jobs.

Crime
Nationally crime is down five percent. Shootings and Murders are still a concern. We are not celebrating, but there have been only 10 murders here to date. Run the criminals when they come …low crime rate will be the attraction to our town here in Morant Bay.

Limestone, quarry and mining are in substantial quantities here.

More Developments

Bowden will be developed as a bulk port to ship heavy aggregates like sand and gravel, limestone etc. so as to protect the roads. This is a form of Reparation.  There was none for the people after slavery.

Housing is bad.  We want to identify all the lands. Squatting led to squatting after the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865.  The Police Force was formed to protect the Plantacracy. To protect their land from the landless. This is what led to the Morant Bay Rebellion. We  want to correct historical indifferences.  Environmental issues must be looked at also. Housing projects will start here shortly.

Falmouth is the next area to be looked at.  The next town Hall will be Falmouth. Lands nearby will be acquired. The town of Falmouth needs to be expanded.  We never lived up to some of the promises we made re improvements at Falmouth to the tourist sector and cruise ships.

Commentary

It was a massive crowd that jam packed the oversized tents and spilled onto the grounds at the Old Good Year Factory site to welcome PM Holness and other dignitaries to the Town Hall in Morant Bay, St. Thomas.

Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie who is Senior International Correspondent & photojournalist for Vision Newspaper was there and filed this report.