‘It is a disgrace!’

Elaine Allen-Bradley, head of the 70-member Negril Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI), has blasted the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation (WMC) which she blames for the protracted delay of the setting up of a fruit and vegetables market for the resort town.

She says the present situation is a source of discomfort for the many tourists at Airbnb facilities, and embarrassment for hospitality business operators in Negril.

“Tourists right now who are in Airbnb [accommodations] are asking ‘where is your market?’ – because they want to go there to buy their fruits and vegetables. And we say we don’t have one, and they are shocked.”

Allen-Bradley, who was re-elected for a second term as president of the NCCI last November, says that plans to construct a fruit and vegetable market have been on the cards for a while but have failed to come on stream.

“It is a disgrace because money has been granted for the fruit and vegetables (market) and it is being held up by the municipal corporation. And we would like to know why,” she said.

Dalton ‘Penny’ Hill, who operates Light House 2, which consists of a restaurant and several guest house operations on the West End Road in Negril, confirmed that tourists have been expressing concern that they are unable to get local vegetables and fruits in that resort town as there is no market there.

“That is very true. It is a very big issue; it is something that we needed 10 years ago, and as an older man who has been in the business for 60 years, it’s ridiculous,” Hill added.

Warren Campbell, a chef from the United Kingdom who has been vacationing in Point Village for the last five weeks, expressed his disappointment at not being able to find local fruits and vegetables in Negril, the world-renowned tourism mecca.

“We have a lady who drives a van once or twice per week where you can buy a limited amount of fruit and veg,” Campbell shared via a voice note.

“As a fully trained and qualified chef on holiday, you really want to have the ability go through a local market to buy the best local fruits, fish and vegetables in one spot,” he said.

RECEIVED AUTHORISATION

In September, Desmond McKenzie, minister of local government and rural development, whose portfolio includes municipal markets, said that more than $9 million had already been spent to create the temporary facility for the merchants.

In 2017, he committed $75 million to build the market, but to date, ground is yet to be broken for the facility to be built.

“I must confess to you that I am embarrassed. I spoke about building the market at my first town hall meeting in Negril in 2017,” McKenzie said then. “I intend to write to the mayor because I believe the credibility of the government, and particularly my credibility as the minister, is being called into question,” he said at the time.

McKenzie stressed that funding was not at issue.

“What I have been getting is a bag of excuses coming out of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation,” McKenzie noted. Among those he listed were issues of soil quality and land.

“And I want to make it clear to the public that it is the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation that has stalled the project. We had budgeted $75 million at the time, and I know it will cost a little more now,” he continued.

Repeated efforts on Tuesday to reach Bertel Moore, the mayor of Savanna-la-Mar and councillor for the Negril division, for an update were unsuccessful. The projected market facility falls within the jurisdiction of Mayor Moore.

However, his deputy councillor, Ian Myles, informed The Gleaner that the temporary location on which to accommodate vendors for the market is now 90 per cent completed.

“The paperwork to connect the sewage went over [to the National Water Commission] from December, therefore, that should be connected by now,” Myles, the Little London division councillor, said.

“The only thing that is left is a tree that is to be cut, which the acting superintendent of roads and works (at the WMC) said he has written to and received authorisation from the National Environment and Planning Agency [NEPA] and everybody else,” the deputy mayor said.