Support for Bishop Edwards' divine plan for Spanish Town

Anastasia Cunningham, Senior Gleaner Writer

Bishop Rowan Edwards' 16-point divine plan of action for the redevelopment of Spanish Town, St Catherine, has been generating public interest since it was revealed in The Sunday Gleaner this past weekend.

Key among Edwards' reformation plans is the removal of the prisons, a gun amnesty for farmlands, and capitalising on the Old Capital's rich historical value as a main tourism earner.

Dr Andrew Wheatley, mayor of Spanish Town, and Dennis Robotham, president of the St Catherine Chamber of Commerce, both welcome the redevelopment suggestions.

"The St Catherine Parish Council welcomes any support, whether it be divine or otherwise, to assist and develop Spanish Town in a positive way, once it is for the betterment of Spanish Town and its people," stated Wheatley.

For his part, Robotham told The Gleaner that "the chamber has been arguing for a long time that Spanish Town needs to be redeveloped in no uncertain terms. If you go back in history, Spanish Town and St Catherine used to contribute more to the GDP (gross domestic product) than all other parishes combined because of the factories that were here. But they have now all since been closed down and not replaced".

Acting Commissioner of Corrections, Lieutenant Colonel Sean Prendergast, said although he could not see a definite link between the prisons being there and an increase in crime, as the pastor suggested, he did not have an issue with removing them.

"That prison (St Catherine Adult Correctional Centre) has long passed its useful life. It is an old prison built in the 1600s that really needs to be replaced with a new purpose-built facility," said Prendergast.

"As the commissioner, I have no objections at all to the relocation. I would love to see the day when both of our maximum-security prisons (St Catherine Adult Correctional Centre and Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre) are closed and the prisoners moved into a modern, purpose-built facility, built elsewhere in a non-residential area."

He said the locations of both prisons create a security issue as there are residential lots built up against the perimeter wall.

"If we can find land elsewhere, that would be ideal," added the commissioner.

Prison location outgrown

From a security and developmental perspective, Wheatley agreed with the removal of the prison from the town centre because he said it had outgrown its current location. He said some years ago, there was discussion to relocate it to an area adjacent to Highway 2000.

"It would be nice to move the prison from the centre of the town and use it as part of the heritage district," stated the mayor.

Robotham believes the space could be used in a more positive and economical way, but its removal would be a long-term projection. "I would support it if we were able to find the funding to relocate it and expand the town into a more cultural and tourism attraction," he shared.

On the issue of gun amnesty for farmlands, Robotham said it may create jobs and move the criminals into something productive, but the bigger question was, are "these guys ready for that sort of development in terms of farming"?

He noted, however, that there were plans afoot to use up the lands to build proper housing to relocate the inner-city communities from within Spanish Town.

"Maybe they can attach some sort of farming aspect to these housing communities to be built," he said.

Wheatley also thinks the gun amnesty is a good idea on paper, but said whether it would work is another matter. He said there was a gun amnesty in Spanish Town a few years ago, but it reaped little success.

"Maybe this approach where more incentives will be given to those persons might work. If we are able to get the guns off the streets, that's good, but you cannot have an amnesty where you take some of the guns off the streets or those that are not working," he said.

"We have to be careful when we speak about gun amnesty because, for instance, if a person has two guns and he gives in one, he gets the land or whatever incentive is there. So it is something that needs to be thoroughly looked into and the logistics properly worked out."

anastasia.cunningham@gleanerjm.com