Mayor’s Forum Heads to Rural St. James

Hundreds of residents of communities in Southern St. James will have the opportunity to voice their concerns on matters affecting them when the St. James Parish Council’s Mayor’s Forum goes rural next Thursday, April 29.
The event, slated for the Mount Carey Baptist Church, will mark the first time that the forum is being held outside of Montego Bay and will facilitate hundreds, who are unable to make the long trek to the capital city.
Mayor of Montego Bay, Councillor Charles Sinclair, told JIS News that the Parish Council wants to afford more rural residents, the opportunity to take part in discussions on critical issues, as well as to “have their say in local governance”.
“The Mayor’s Forum is aimed at providing a platform for persons to meet with various stakeholders from government and non-government organisations to discuss important issues affecting people and their communities. This time, however, we want to bring the forum to the people, so more persons, who were not able to attend in the past, particularly those from rural St. James, can get an opportunity to participate,” he pointed out.
He advised that the meeting would be attended by sitting Councillor for the Division, Homer Davis; representatives of the St. James Parish Council, the National Water Commission (NWC), the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) Rural Electrification Programme (REP), the St. James Police, Social Development Commission (SDC) and other agencies.
The Mayor said that the forum was a great opportunity for civic-minded persons from communities such as Roehampton, Montpelier, Bickersteth, Anchovy, Mount Carey, Shettlewood, Comfort Hall among others, to let their voices be heard on critical issues and hear from representatives of key agencies on community development issues.