THE UNLAWFUL operation of restaurants, bars, furniture shops, grocery stores, shipping services and other businesses on residential properties in Portmore and other communities in St. Catherine is now proving too much for the St. Catherine Parish Council to regulate.Despite clear stipulations barring persons from operating businesses from residential properties, the trend has been increasing in the parish on such a large scale that current regulatory efforts are almost a lost cause says Michael Morris, secretary manager at the St. Catherine Parish Council.
The change of use from residence to business has come to include operations such as massage parlours, one of which has been operating in the Edgewater community of Portmore for some six months and is now being investigated by the Parish Council.
Although there is no official count on the number of residential premises in the various communities being used for commercial purposes in the parish, Mr. Morris told The Sunday Gleaner that the problem is "becoming a burden" to the Parish Council due to the cost and time-consuming efforts needed to regulate the parish.
"For the past two weeks we have been getting more complaints from persons in places like Portmore and Eltham every day. Just yesterday (Wednesday) we heard of the massage parlour in Portmore and we have persons currently investigating that because that's not just a change of use, it is a police matter." said Mr. Morris.
"We are trying to deal with it as best as we can but there are so many of them. We have to take them to court but it is a time- consuming and expensive process which we really could not afford if we were to deal with everybody," explained Mr. Morrison.
CASES
The Parish Council currently has about seven or eight cases before the courts, where persons have converted their homes into thriving businesses.
Chairman of the Portmore City Council, and councillor of the Edgewater division, Colin Fagan, explained that what has been happening is that operations which started out as micro businesses have blossomed into larger businesses causing problems for residents in the area.
"There are some Chinese restaurants where the people have become so defiant that they have ignored notices by the Parish Council which forced the Parish Council to take court action," said Mr. Fagan.
"The problem is becoming a real headache if we don't get enforcement. The parish councillor will always serve the notice but if we don't get the enforcement it will mean nothing," he added.
L.B.
