Dovecot given all-clear to resume burials at disputed site

The operators of Dovecot Memorial Park in St Catherine have been cleared to resume burials on a 50-acre plot that has been the source of dispute.

However, despite meeting the environmental criteria to continue its operations, there are lingering concerns about the expansion.

Councillor for the Red Hills division, Keith McCook, said the cemetery will adversely affect the lives of people in his division.

"Mr Chairman, it is like you are putting dead over life. What about the aquifers? There are seven wells that will be affected,"  he told Thursday's meeting of the St Catherine Municipal Corporation.

However, chairman of the corporation and Mayor of Spanish Town, Norman Scott, said all the relevant documentation had been submitted.

"When we enforced the stop order it was to address the usage, as they needed to get permit for a change of use. All the required documents are in, therefore, Dovecot can do business," he said.

In August, the municipal corporation issued a cease-and-desist order on Dovecot Memorial Park in relation to the new burial area.

It came after residents demonstrated outside the gate of the expanded facility, after learning that the operators of the burial park had started to inter bodies at the new site.

- Rasbert Turner

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