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Some $21.85 million has been allocated in the 2012/13 Estimates of Expenditure for a project to strengthen civil society participation in local governance and establish a co-ordinated local civil society and state response to crime and violence. During the fiscal year, ‘The Enhancing Civil Society Participation in Local Government for Community Safety’ project, funded by the United Nations Development Programme...

Local Government and Community Development Minister, Hon. Noel Arscott, has underscored the pivotal role which local authorities must play in sustaining good governance in communities, by seeking to assist them in overcoming challenges, particularly crime and violence. Speaking at a parish safety and security workshop, at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston on May 9, Mr. Arscott said issues...

Since the start of the year, the parish of St. Elizabeth has seen a 24 per cent reduction in major crimes, with a 38 per cent drop in the murder rate, over the same period of 2011. Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Derrick Cochrane, who heads the Area Three Police Division, credited the improvement to the hard work of the...

The cleaning of the Lucea cemetery is the parish project for Hanover for Labour Day 2012 on May 23. The project was chosen at a multi-sectoral meeting held in the parish council chambers on May 2, which was chaired jointly by council chairman and Mayor of Lucea, Shernett Haughton, and Custos of the parish, Dr. David Stair. The representatives at...

The new government, which was elected to office on December 29, 2011, has placed local governance at the top of the national agenda, with a full Ministry of Local Government and Community Development established under the leadership of Hon. Noel Arscott with Hon. Colin Fagan as State Minister. Under the Portia Simpson Miller-led administration, the Local Government Elections, which were...

The 24 People’s National Party (PNP) Councillors of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC), who were successful in the March 26 Local Government election, were sworn on April 10, at a ceremony held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston. The other 14 Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Councillors did not attend the ceremony, and will be sworn in at...

Minister of Local Government and Community Development, Hon. Noel Arscott, says the Government is moving “full speed ahead’ with local government reform. He said that three pieces of legislation, to facilitate the process, are to be fast tracked. These are: the Local Governance Act, the Local Government Financing and Financial Management Act, and the Human Resource Management Act. “We are...

Newly appointed Mayor of Kingston, Senator Angella Brown Burke, has welcomed the announcement that the Government has commenced the process of entrenching local governance in Jamaica’s Constitution, which will enable autonomy in the operations of the island’s Parish Councils. This announcement was made by Local Government and Community Development Minister, Hon. Noel Arscott, during Monday’s (April 2) swearing-in ceremony for...

Councillor for the Norman Gardens Division of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC), Senator Angella Brown Burke, was sworn in on April 2, as the 51st Mayor of the nation’s capital. Senator Brown Burke was elected, by acclamation, to the top political post in the KSAC, by virtue of being the sole nominee for the position, and duly took...

Veteran Councillor in the St. James Parish Council and President of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), Glendon Harris, has become the 15th Mayor of the City of Montego Bay. Mayor Harris, who has represented the Maroon Town division for 22 unbroken years, was sworn into office during a ceremony Thursday March 29, at the Montego Bay Civic Centre. The new...

The town of Falmouth, in Trelawny, has a new Mayor. He is Councillor Garth Wilkinson, of the Falmouth division in the parish. Councillor Wilkinson, who is also Chairman of the Trelawny Parish Council,  is one of nine persons who were victorious in the recent Local Government elections, held on Monday March 26.  He won the seat in the division as...

The ruling  People's  National Party (PNP) has won the  2012 Local Government  Elections,  gaining  149  seats  to the Opposition Jamaica Labour  Party’s (JLP) 76, with Independents winning the other two. The elections, which were held on March 26, saw the PNP winning 12 of the 13 parish councils, including the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC). There was a tie...