Police to investigate disturbance at Fiesta Hotel site

The police high command has dispatched a team of investigators to the site of the Grand Palladium Hotel being constructed by the Fiesta Group of Spain at Elgin Town in Hanover. This was reported at a meeting held at Jamaica House on Thursday (Mar. 1) to assess the situation at the construction site and to arrive at an agreement on the way forward.
The team is to investigate the circumstances leading to the disturbance at the site on Tuesday of this week and provide a report on the incident for Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller ahead of her visit to Spain during which she will be meeting with the head of Fiesta Group in Madrid on Tuesday (Mar. 6).
In her remarks to the meeting, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller charged Minister of Information and Development, Donald Buchanan, with the responsibility to ascertain all the factors leading up to the disturbance in order to arrive at a solution. She said the incident was regrettable and that the government would not entertain violent behaviour at this or any construction site across the island.
Minister Donald Buchanan who subsequently chaired the meeting on behalf of the Prime Minister said the government was committed to the development process and that this included collaboration and partnership with all investors both local and foreign. He stressed that as a first step towards solving the problems at the worksite, the developers would have to engage the residents of the community.
He instructed the relevant government agencies to ensure that those matters relating to working conditions on the site, environmental regulations and security, are urgently addressed in conjunction with the Fiesta group.
Development Minister Donald Buchanan also directed that senior officials of the NWC liaise with representatives of the Fiesta Group to expedite the provision of piped water supply to the site.
In his contribution to the meeting, President of JAMPRO and former Executive Director of the HEART Trust/NTA Mr. Robert Gregory said the hiring of certified workers at the site was a first step in addressing some of the labour issues at the site. Mr. Gregory said contractors and sub-contractors should be encouraged to employ workers who had been certified by the HEART/NTA. He said that where workers have the experience but were not certified there were measures in place to have them certified. The meeting was attended by officials of the Ministries of Labour and Social Security, Tourism, National Security, JAMPRO and the Spanish Ambassador His Excellency Jesus Silva and representatives of the Fiesta Group. The Member of Parliament and the PNP Caretaker for the constituency of Eastern Hanover were also in attendance.