UK MPs Look at Social Housing Projects in Kingston

Minister of Water and Housing, Hon. Dr. Horace Chang, toured three housing projects in Kingston and St. Andrew with a delegation from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) UK Branch on Friday (July 31).
The Minister was accompanied to one of the sites, Hagley Park Road, by Opposition Member of Parliament for the area, Dr. Peter Phillips (East Central St. Andrew), and Opposition spokesman on housing, Robert Pickersgill.
“The team said they wanted to take a look at some social housing in the Corporate Area, and a request was made to the Ministry. We decided to take them on the tour to show them some of the work being undertaken by the Ministry,” Dr. Chang explained.
The British Members of Parliament were in Jamaica as guests of the Jamaica branch of the CPA, which made the request to the Ministry.
The first stop was at 113 Hagley Park Road in Dr. Phillips’ constituency, where the Minister and the MPs toured the lot of land which has been compulsorily acquired by the Ministry of Housing under Sections 3 and 5 of the Land Acquisition Act. The notice of acquisition is to be gazetted, after which there will be a hearing under Section 9 of the Act to complete the acquisition. This site is currently occupied by resident who have constructed block and steel units.
At Andrew Court, Olympic Gardens, the visiting MPs saw the way residents have improved upon the 11 houses and three shops, built on the site of a former community centre which was severely damaged during Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. Members of the party spoke to beneficiaries of the units, and were taken on a mini tour of a backyard garden planted and tended by Mr. Everald O’Connor.
The final stop was in Denham Town, where units were constructed with funding from the National Housing Trust (NHT) under its Inner City Housing Project (ICHP).