Lucea’s deputy mayor wants TEF to do more

WESTERN BUREAU:

Lucea’s deputy mayor, Andria Dehaney-Grant, is calling for the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) to direct more of its resources to Hanover, saying the parish, which shares the resort town of Negril with Westmoreland, is not getting back enough of what it is contributing to the national coffers.

Dehaney-Grant, who is now the acting mayor while Sheridan Samuels is off on vacation leave, said she was looking for more support going forward for the parish, which is celebrating its 300th anniversary.

“With Hanover celebrating its 300 years of existence this year, I am thinking that it is prime time for the TEF to spend some of its resources in Hanover, being a parish that has so many hotels that the TEF get its resources from,” said Dehaney-Grant.

Dehaney-Grant, who spoke with The Gleaner following last week’s handover of some picnic benches at the Watson Taylor Park, in Lucea, by the charity organisation Friends of Watson Taylor Park, nonetheless acknowledged that she was aware that the TEF has plans for the park, which has been the home of sports in the parish for many decades.

“I know that the TEF has the Watson Taylor Park beach in its plans for future development, but it is my view that the whole Watson Taylor Park complex should be developed by the TEF and not just the beach section, and, even more so, attention be paid to the parish of Hanover in general,” she said.

The deputy mayor further argued that, while the TEF occasionally undertakes minor projects in the parish, she hopes to see the agency involved in some major projects, which will significantly impact life in the parish.

“I have seen where they have done some work, such as road and welcome signs in various sections of the parish and so forth, but in terms of a project that we can look on to say that this is a great project from TEF, I am not seeing that,” she said.

The deputy mayor said that, in recent times, the Hanover Municipal Corporation has approached the TEF for its support on several projects, some of which have been awaiting approval.

A probe by The Gleaner has revealed that the TEF has plans to develop nine beaches across the island, including the beach at Watson Taylor Park and the parish’s most popular beach, the Old Steamer Beach in the eastern section of the parish.

It is unclear when the works on the two beaches will commence as, except for a town hall meeting in November last year, where TEF officials outlined the plans for the Old Steamer Beach, no further activities have occurred.