Redevelopment Company to be Established for May Pen

Stakeholders have made the decision to form a May Pen Redevelopment Company aimed at planning and implementing necessary infrastructural and developmental changes to the town of May Pen and if necessary to relocate certain activities within the town.

A redevelopment task force will also be established to lead the process of the formation of the company.

The decision was made at a special meeting of representatives from the Clarendon Parish Council, the Social Development Commission (SDC), the Parish Development Committee (PDC), businesses and communities, held at the Hotel Versalles in May Pen on Wednesday (June 29).

Administrator for the Clarendon Parish Development Committee and Chairman of the Lower Clarendon Development Area Committee, Ingrid Parchment explained to the meeting that the Redevelopment Company should have representatives from all the various sectors of society.

“The suggestion has been that we form a May Pen Redevelopment Company which will involve local and central government, private sector, non-government organisations and civil organizations to ensure full participation in the planning and implementing of this (redevelopment) process,” she said.

Miss Parchment told JIS News that the idea to form the Redevelopment Company was in keeping with efforts to rezone areas along the highway 2000 corridor with May Pen being rezoned into a regional centre.

This she noted sought to bring more order to how towns and cities have been previously constructed and to ensure that proper development takes place in the future.

She pointed out that areas above and below Highway 2000 had been rezoned also with the intent to make better use of the land, by consolidating some of the housing schemes and reduce squatting by regularizing squatter settlements or relocating them.

It was decided at the meeting that the task force to form the Redevelopment Company should be established within the next four weeks as of June 29, 2005 and is to be led by Miss Parchment.

She pointed out that the task force would need legal, planning and administrative consultation to determine what are the best options in forming the company.

This would include whether the Company is to be led by the Parish Council, the private sector or by community.

The task force would also need to determine the responsibilities of the Board of Directors, define the responsibilities and tasks of the Company, identify sources of funding and establish its own timelines in the process of the company’s formation.

It was also suggested that representatives from the Planning Department at the Clarendon Parish Council, a lawyer, an architect, social workers, engineers, health representatives and representatives from the Transport and Works Ministry, the National Works Agency, the Police, the National Solid Waste Management Authority, and the National Environment and Planning Agency should be a part of the Redevelopment Company.

A number of issues to be looked at by the Company which were discussed at the meeting include traffic and human congestion in the town of May Pen, inadequate parking, relocation of the library, market, the primary and high schools, expansion of the town, implementation of municipal courts, enforcement of noise pollution laws, converting the road where the fire station is located into a one-way, and establishment of green areas in collaboration with the Parish Council, among other issues.