BALACLAVA, St Elizabeth — All agree that the newly opened courthouse in Balaclava close to the borders of Manchester and Trelawny in north-eastern St Elizabeth is among the most modern and well-equipped judicial facilities in Jamaica.

The fear is that the low caseload in quiet, peaceful Balalclava will render the $60.4-million facility a ‘white elephant’, unless ways can be found to utilise it outside of the justice system.

Well known lawyer and former chairman of the St Elizabeth Parish Council Jeremy Palmer is among those insisting that the location in deep rural northern St Elizabeth rather than in urban centres such as Santa Cruz or parish capital Black River means taxpayers’ money has been wasted.

“I think it’s an absolute waste of public resources and that the facility is totally misplaced, given the needs of the courts in the parish,” Palmer, who opposed the Balaclava project from the very beginning, told the Jamaica Observer Central.

“It’s heart-rending to think that we have built a facility like that and we are now trying to find some use to put to it…,” Palmer added.

Since the abandonment “years ago” of an old wooden structure that previously housed the Balaclava court — on the same site that the new facility now stands — criminal and civil cases had been transferred to Santa Cruz.

According to a background brief handed to journalists at the opening, the closing of the old Balaclava court house had caused “a strain on both Santa Cruz and Black River” due to the transfer of cases. “On more than one occasion petty sessions courts, presided over by lay magistrates in those two locations, had to be postponed due to a shortage of space,” the brief said.

However, according to Palmer, on the evidence of the average resident magistrate’s caseload originating in Balaclava, there will be need for only one court day “per month in (the new courthouse) and the judge can easily adjourn by midday”.

At the recent formal opening, Justice Minister Mark Golding and others said thought was being given to how best to “maximise” use of the facility.

Golding said “stakeholder meetings” were taking place “to maximise on the benefits… for the local community, given the tight fiscal space through which we must manoeuvre in implementing policy solutions”.

New chairman of the St Elizabeth Parish Council and councillor for the Balaclava Division Everton Fisher told the opening ceremony that he was depending on the minister and his staff to ensure “that this building is fully utilised”. Fisher, who recalls when Balaclava was a bustling centre of the now defunct all-island passenger rail service, later told the Observer Central that “my only concern is that I would not want to see a white elephant building in Balaclava”.

Fisher, who is also the mayor of Black River, says he has no clear ideas of how the court building should be optimally utilised, but is hopeful that the justice ministry will find “meaningful ways…”

While noting that the “lovely” Balaclava facility “is a move to provide a more effective delivery of service” to St Elizabeth’s citizens, Chief Justice Zaila McCalla urged the Ministry of Justice “to give serious consideration to the best use that can be made of this building in order to serve the people of this parish”, adding that she was “committed to work with the ministry… to achieve that objective…”

Former member of parliament for North-East St Elizabeth Roger Clarke — credited by current MP Raymond Pryce for the lobbying effort which led to the new courthouse — conceded in a telephone interview with the Observer Central that fears the facility could become a “white elephant” were justified.

Clarke believes all stakeholders should work to “develop a specific plan for the building”. He believes “something in the line of training” for young people which is lacking in the Balaclava area could help to fill the gap.

Described by permanent secretary in the justice ministry Robert Rainford as being only behind Port Antonio and the Family Court in Hanover in terms of its modern equipage, the Balaclava courthouse includes a large courtroom with jury facilities, a petty sessions courtroom and two judges’ chambers.

It also boasts accommodation for a cashier, an office for the clerk of the court, two counselling rooms, an attorney interview room, an attorney/client briefing room, a sick bay, staff lunch room with kitchenette, a holding area, a public waiting area and parking facilities.

It wasn’t mentioned in the brief, but the courthouse also provides comfortable public bathroom facilities — not to be taken for granted at Jamaican courts. The project started in 2005 and was completed two years ago with Golding expressing surprise at the delay in its opening.

Clarke explained that his lobbying efforts for the facility to replace the old dilapidated board building dated back to the 1990s when Balaclava remained a relatively busy judicial centre. Up to the closing down of the passenger rail services in the 1990s, Balaclava was a point of convergence for people in northern St Elizabeth, south Trelawny and north-western Manchester.

“I didn’t anticipate what it would be like today… I spoke to the then justice minister (AJ Nicholson) because the old courthouse was in a deplorable state,” Clarke recalled.

Clarke, who is the agriculture minister and current MP for Central Westmoreland, said he had also agitated for modern court facilities in bustling Santa Cruz — gaining partial success eventually with the building of a smaller structure which was originally meant to serve the petty sessions courts.

Clarke held out hope that a passenger rail service will eventually return to northern St Elizabeth which could lead to the resurrection of Balaclava, thereby boosting the relevance of the courthouse.

“I am still hopeful,” he said.

Pryce insisted that the courthouse, should not be seen as a mistake. “It’s not a question of either, or,” he said when asked whether it wouldn’t have been better placed in Santa Cruz.

He pointed to “commitments” from the Ministry of Justice for improved court infrastructure, not just in Balaclava, but elsewhere.

However, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice Robert Rainford sounded less than optimistic when he spoke to journalists.

“We are looking at the whole matter of physical infrastructure for the Ministry of Justice throughout the entire island,” said Rainford, when asked about plans for improvement of decrepit court facilities in areas such as Santa Cruz — which he admits is “bursting at the seams” — and Black River.

“What we are really hoping is to look at where we have the most cases; and in those areas we are going to be looking at those facilities first; so there will have to be an islandwide activity we are looking at,” he said. “As to plans for St Elizabeth, I will have to address those as I address the issue islandwide.”

Rainford said optimistic talk during the opening ceremony of work having started on a new courthouse in Malvern was apparently the result of confusion over a new police station there. The historic Malvern Police Station and courthouse complex were destroyed by Hurricane Dean in 2007.

Rainford said that while a replacement police station had been built, “consultations” between the Ministry of Justice and the National Security Ministry for a new court house were incomplete.

During his speech, Golding said there had been just under 22,000 cases in the St Elizabeth court system in 2011 — the third lowest among the parishes in Jamaica’s Resident Magistrate’s Courts. He cautioned against overly optimistic expectations for improvement and expansion in an atmosphere of scarce resources.

“We know that Jamaica has been going through economic difficulties for ever so long … so I am not here to promise you any particular glory or achievement in the future, but as soon as we are able to do so… we will do so,” Golding said. “… and those things that we are able to do to improve the justice system as a whole, which may not involve large outlay of capital expenditure but involve brain work — looking at the system that we have, how can we improve it, what are the issues we can address through legislation… there is a great deal that can be done to improve our justice system by focusing that way…,” the minister added.