Sun | Dec 14, 2025

Dumfries, St James development plan to be resurrected - Bartlett

Published:Thursday | February 6, 2020 | 3:11 PM
Edmund Bartlett (third from left), Member of Parliament for St James East Central and Tourism Minister, participates in the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a new 300,000-gallon water tank in Somerton. Also participating are (from left) Godfrey Dyer, chairman of the Tourism Enhancement Fund, Mark McGann, councillor for the Somerton division, Ann Bolt, community relations officer at the National Water Commission, Homer Davis, Mayor of Montego Bay, and Audley Thompson, Managing Director of Rural Water Supply Limited -Christopher Thomas photo

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett says the long-stalled development plan to transform Dumfries, St James into a major township is being revived and will entail several projects aimed at developing several communities over the next two years.

Bartlett, who is also Member of Parliament for St James East Central, where Dumfries is located, made the announcement while addressing a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a 300,000-gallon water tank in the community of Somerton.

The project, valued at J$300 million, will see water being collected from the Canaan pumping station and distributed to areas such as Goodwill, Content, and Orange in the constituency and as far as Irwin Heights.

“The development plan for Dumfries, which has been lagging from the first iteration of my traverse into tourism, is now being resurrected because the planner, Prime Minister Andrew Holness, is looking at every possibility now for the creation of housing. So the Dumfries programme is not shelved, it’s just been held a little because of resources but it is very much on track,” said Bartlett.

The Dumfries project, which was unveiled in December 2011, envisioned the construction of 100 residential houses and 25 commercial units on 50 acres of land.

The project was slated to start in 2012 but was shelved following a change in government.  

According to Bartlett, the project’s revival would be one of the benefits to be derived from the planned Montego Bay Perimeter Road initiative.

“When the perimeter road is done its connecting roadways will revolutionise all of St James, change traffic flow and make it easier for everybody to transit from one area to another. Adelphi, Paisley, Palmyra, and Spot Valley will be the new areas of real development in St James,” said Bartlett

“So we’re finishing work in Grange Pen, we’re dealing with Barrett Hall, and finishing up Barrett Town, we’re finishing now with Somerton, and then the next big push for us is Dumfries, to make that into a decent township for the people of that area,” added Bartlett.

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