Editorial | Not in Heroes Park

Fortuitously, the cost of the project has stalled the Government’s plan to expropriate a chunk of National Heroes Park in Kingston for a new parliament building.

Hopefully, this is the death of the project at that venue, which is the last remaining significant area of green space in the capital.

A portion of the park is already utilised for monuments to Jamaica’s national heroes. The remaining 30 acres of the 50-acre property should be developed for the purpose intended when the former King George VI Memorial Park was, by legislation, deeded to the city in 1956: as a place of recreation and outdoor sports.

Kingston and St Andrew, including the many blighted urban communities that surround Heroes Circle, need much more of such venues. It would be a travesty if this one, too, was either totally lost, or substantially diminished in the name of development.

GORDON HOUSE INADEQUATE

To be clear, this newspaper is not opposed to the idea that Jamaica needs a new parliament building. The existing facility, Gordon House, which has been home of the legislature since Independence, is tight and crammed. Gordon House has grown inadequate for the needs of a modern parliament, especially if ours were to lift itself out of the laziness in which it is now ensconced, to engage in more frequent sittings and meetings of its committees.

It is just that Heroes Park is not the place for it. Indeed, Evan Williams’ design for the parliament, a grand circular rendition, with its nods to the National Stadium would look as good, and make an equally profound statement about democracy elsewhere. Indeed, the structure would probably be more appropriate on the King’s House lands, close to the residence of the governor general and the Office of the Prime Minister.

DEEP AND RATIONAL REVIEW

Originally, the new parliament building, covering more than 11 acres, was to have started in 2021 and be completed by March 2023. The price tag was US$50 million, or nearly J$8 billion today.

However, the Urban Development Corporation (UDC), which was spearheading the project, has disclosed that the sole bid it received, after an international tender, was higher than its budget.

“As a result, the UDC is reviewing the scope for cost-effectiveness and value for money,” the agency told The Gleaner.

It is not clear what this means for its larger initiative – the redevelopment of the areas around Heroes Circle into what Prime Minister Andrew Holness referred to as a government campus, a cluster of ministries to join the three that are already in the vicinity.

This delay is an opportunity for a deep and rational review of the idea of gobbling up more than 11 acres of this scarce recreational space for the parliament building, rather than developing the land for the enjoyment of the surrounding communities.

Additionally, the authorities might consider whether, rather than concentrating on a government campus, the focus should be on inner-city renewal in communities such as Allman Town, Fletcher’s Land, Jones Town, Hannah Town and the southern end of Cross Roads.