Falmouth ‘national heritage’ designation being abused, says Muschett

WESTERN BUREAU:

THE JAMAICA National Heritage Trust and the Trelawny Municipal Council are being accused of employing unfair, if not unethical, behaviour in the manner in which building plans are approved for the town of Falmouth, which is officially designated a National Heritage District.

According to former Trelawny Custos Paul Muschett, he is far from pleased with what is happening in Falmouth because, in his view, buildings are being constructed in the Georgian town without attention being paid to keeping its national monument designation intact.

“Permission is being given for buildings which are national monuments to be torn down, and buildings constructed with no semblance to the facade which existed before destruction,” said Muschett, who is not pleased with what he sees taking place.

Given the runaround

According to Muschett, he has sought answers from both the TMC and National Heritage Trust, but is being given the runaround as it relates to a definitive answer.

“Each is putting the [responsibility for] granting of permission on the other. Former Mayor Garth Wilkinson, who is also councillor for Falmouth, said ‘all approvals are given by National Heritage Trust, and the municipality rubber-stamps the recommendations,’”Muschett told The Gleaner.

Like Muschett, businessman Dennis Meadows thinks something has gone amiss as it relates to the granting of permits. According to him, when he was putting up his building, he had to conform to the required specifications.

“When I applied for permission to construct my building, I had to conform to certain specifications. As we speak, there is ongoing construction right here on Market Street for which requirements are different from mine, which is less than 200 yards from where I am,” said Meadows. “I had to build a minimum of four feet from the sidewalk and have parking space for a minimum of four vehicles. This building, to which I refer, has no parking space, and you can stand on the sidewalk and touch the building.”

“It can’t be that investors from the Orient are treated with kid’s gloves and locals are drawn over the coals. Rules are rules for one and all,” added Meadows, who made no bones about his displeasure with the situation.