RESIDENTS of the once vibrant town of Richmond in south-east St Mary are calling on local authorities to develop a plan that will attract and drive new investments to the area, in an effort to re-establish it as a major productive hub in the parish.

The town, formerly known as Meek Spring before it was later renamed after the Duke of Richmond, was once a thriving area for agricultural pursuits, with at least one major factory — Cadbury/Highgate Foods — which drove its economy before production at the factory ceased in 2006.

The closure of the chocolate factory, residents believe, contributed to the town’s rapid decline.

The town’s disintegration can also be attributed to many factors including weather, which has destroyed agricultural crops, and what some have described as the inability of its political representatives to truly grasp the problems and deal with them effectively.

“Richmond dead; it dead fi true man,” Aldain Jackson, a worker in the town, told Jamaica Observer North and East.

“You did have bakeries; you did have hardware; two supermarkets and some wholesales and stuff. But now, only one supermarket and one wholesale is here,” he added.

Jackson lamented that the closure of several businesses in the town contributed to its slow demise.

Added to that, businessman Milton, who also believes that the town is dead, said it would take private investors to revive it. “Government can’t do anything. The people who own the buildings need to do something with them,” he said. “It takes money you know, and people are not investing here. Everything goes to Highgate because it is central,” he continued.

Twenty-one-year-old, Rashawn Thomas described Richmond as a “ghost town” and believes that it will remain this way because graduates often opt to migrate to different parishes or overseas after completing secondary and even tertiary education.

Member of Parliament for the constituency, Dr Winston Green responding to questions from North & East informed that plans are in place to assist in the redevelopment of the town.

“One of the things that we want to do is fix the roads leading to the town. And we want to keep the town crime- free as these things will enhance investments, because we are looking for private investments,” Green said.

The now two-time MP also said that plans are in place to build a community centre for the youth in an effort to keep them in Richmond.

“The community centre, well that plan is underway. Any time now they are going to start it and we want to include in it skills-training,” he said.

“So these are some of the things to enhance Richmond because Government don’t really build back a town, worse an MP. So we have to do the necessary things to make the town more attractive to investors,” Green added.