WESTERN BUREAU:
THE NATIONAL Works Agency (NWA) will have to wait until next month for a response from the St. James Parish Council to its request to freeze construction in areas designated for the proposed Montego Bay bypass.
"The Council is on recess for the month of August, so that matter will not come up for discussion until we resume normal business in September," said Montego Bay's Mayor, Councillor Noel Donaldson, yesterday. He said that he first heard of the request through the media. "It was only this morning (Wednesday) that the request was hand-delivered to the Council," he said.
A release from Stephen Shaw, the NWA's acting manager for communication and customer services, which was sent to media houses late Tuesday afternoon, said the agency had written to the Council requesting a freeze on construction in areas such as Irwin, Cornwall Courts, Salt Spring and Ironshore which fall within the designated corridor for the bypass.
"Freezing of the proposed corridor has become necessary, as the consultants working on the project have had to change its alignment twice, in order to avoid hilly terrain and costly land acquisition," said Shaw. "The most recent change of alignment came out of a meeting in June, which included a team from the NWA, a Malaysian delegation and several stakeholders from Montego Bay."
MAYOR NOT CALLING THE SHOTS
However, Mayor Donaldson, who was not one of the local stakeholders involved in the June meeting, said the decision was not his to make and, as a consequence, he was not in a position to say whether or not the Council will comply with the request, which the NWA considers as paramount in its plan to move forward with the project.
"The letter will be taken before a committee of Council where the request will be examined and a response formulated," said Mayor Donaldson. "That will not happen before next month as the Council is now in recess."
Mr. Shaw said that the NWA had been in constant dialogue with Council officials, such as secretary/manager, Christopher Powell, and superintendent of roads and works, Tubal Brown, and they are aware of what has been happening.
"It is not that we are rushing the Parish Council into a decision," Shaw said. "The letter is really to put them on notice in regards to what we are expecting from them," he added.
