From left, Richard Azan and Milton Brown.

Gareth Manning, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

A nasty row is brewing between Richard Azan, Member of Parliament for north west Clarendon, and Milton Brown, Mayor of May Pen, over the construction of the Spaldings Market.

According to the mayor, no approval has been given by the parish council for construction of the market, yet on Monday, ground was broken for construction to begin. As a result, he says, the council is now considering imposing a stop order on the project.

Mayor Brown claims Mr. Azan, the Junior Works Minister, has been consistently flouting building regulations and has gone ahead on at least two other occasions to build without the approval of the parish council.

"No plan has been submitted to the planning committee at the Clarendon Parish Council for seeking permission to build," Mayor Brown asserted.

"We hear about construction when the thing is done and the typical thing is that when we hear about it, we are (already) breaking ground. This is against the regulations as it pertains to building approvals for development or construction," he emphasised.

Mayor Brown accuses Mr. Azan of sidestepping the parish council when a transport centre was to be built in Spaldings and, again, when he built a parking area in Frankfield.

"If an accident happened there today, everybody would be climbing all over the parish council. Nobody is going to speak to Mr. Azan and he will tell you then that it is the parish council's responsibility," argued Mayor Brown. "If it is our responsibility, (then) the building needs to be approved by the council and that is the procedure."

Rejecting comments

But Mr. Azan is rejecting the comments by Mayor Brown. He says the only person having a problem with the construction of the market is the mayor and not the council in its entirety.

"The parish councils were the ones who drew the plans," says Mr. Azan.

According to Mr. Azan, meetings were held in which the plans for the market were approved. He says the secretary manager of the council as well as technicians, the superintendent of works and members of the Urban Development Corporation, who are funding the project, were at the meeting.

"The parish council is the one who did all things and all the meetings were held and everything went straight through," the Junior Works Minister claims.

Mr. Azan is also rejecting allegations that he has been consistently flouting building regulations by not seeking the approval of the parish council. He says the transport centre in Spaldings to which the mayor is referring was started by the parish council, under the supervision of the superintendent of works. He says the same was done for the park in Frankfield.