Keep Boscobel Housing Scheme on JDIP - Belnavis
Published:Tuesday | January 10, 2012 | 12:00 AM
Carl Gilchrist, Gleaner Writer
BOSCOBEL, St Mary:
COUNCILLOR FOR the Boscobel division in Western St Mary, Michael Belnavis, has pleaded to the Portia Simpson Miller-led administration to keep Boscobel Housing Scheme on the Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme's (JDIP) list of roads to be repaired.
Belnavis, a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) councillor for the division since 2003, made the call against the backdrop of his party's loss to the People's National Party (PNP) in the December 2011 election and proposed changes that have been earmarked for the programme.
The Boscobel Housing Scheme is listed, along with several other communities, as part of the JDIP project announced by then Transport and Works Minister Mike Henry when the programme was launched in February 2010.
Work has since started in several areas in the division and according to Belnavis: "We're still holding the Government to that because we spent a lot of time, effort, and resources to get it to this point. As a matter of fact, the people in the community are clamouring to ensure that the roads are done, because with a change of administration people are nervous as to whether or not there's going to be any thought of political victimisation."
Poor infrastructure
Belnavis said the housing scheme was developed by private contractors without proper infrastructure, especially as it relates to the roads.
He said he has worked assiduously over the last five years to get the roads in the community repaired. With the advent of the JDIP in 2010, he, with assistance from former Western St Mary Member of Parliament Robert Montague was able to get the housing scheme roads on the list of roads to be repaired.
Said Belnavis: "The idea is to provide some level of assistance for these people. They got into a bad situation, so we want to see how we can better the situation. The parish council has no jurisdiction over the roads, apart from the main road that leads from the entrance to inside the neighbourhood, so I took it upon myself to see how I could work a programme for the residents in the community and was successful in getting it on the JDIP."
As such, asserted Belnavis, the roads in the community should remain, as per original schedule, under the JDIP.
"We want the (JDIP) programme to continue, regardless of whose idea it was and we want it to be transparent. It's a major project and it will benefit many thousands of people because most of the roads are in a bad state. It's virtually marl roads in what is the biggest housing scheme on the St Mary coast," the councillor stated.