For the year 2020, building/planning applications received by municipal corporations were valued at an estimated $204.7 billion. The estimated value of applications approved was $145.2 billion, while those that were still being processed at the close of the year are valued at approximately $105.2 billion. The information is contained in the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) 2020 Economic and Social...

Minister of State in the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Hon. Homer Davis, is encouraging residents of communities slated for improvement works under the Government’s $650-million Rural Development Programme to embrace the initiative. He said for the works to be successful, persons need to “monitor the projects to make sure that what was said is what is being...

Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Hon. Desmond McKenzie (left), is accompanied by Councillor for the Porus division, Claudia Morant-Baker and Mayor of Mandeville, Donovan Mitchell, during a visit to the emergency shelter at the St. Jago Primary and Infant School in Manchester. The Minister toured sections of the parish recently.

The Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) is encouraging persons to practise alternatives to burning when clearing land and disposing of the brush generated. This call comes as the Brigade is again seeing an increase in bushfires across the island. “We really have to again implore Jamaicans, especially those who are lighting fires to clear farmland, to desist from doing this,” JFB...

The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has committed to improving the lives of residents of South Manchester communities, through provision of the social service of water and indigent housing for an elderly couple. While on tour of several communities in the South Manchester area last Friday (July 23), the portfolio Minister, Hon. Desmond McKenzie, took note of the...

The Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) is urging persons to desist from making malicious false-alarm calls, as they not only waste the country’s resources but delay the response of firefighters to genuine fire calls, resulting in loss of life and property. The call comes from JFB’s Public Relations Officer, Emeleo Ebanks, who told JIS News that “1,119 times last year, someone...

Local Government and Rural Development Minister, Hon. Desmond McKenzie, says that the Ministry will be exploring ways to breathe new life into the Porus Market in Manchester. The facility has experienced a decline in economic activity since the closure of the abattoir some years ago. The Minister, who stopped at the market during a tour of South Manchester communities on...