Wait continues for new courthouse in Mandeville
MANDEVILLE, Manchester — The long wait to find a suitable location for a new courthouse in this crowded south-central town seems set to continue.
There was hope recently when Justice Minister Delroy Chuck told journalists during a visit to St Elizabeth that thought was being given to building the courthouse at the site of the motor vehicle examination depot on Levy Lane off Caledonia Road.
In such a scenario, said Chuck, the examination depot would be moved to Kingsland, a few miles west of Mandeville where 40 acres of land was donated for a new courthouse by bauxite/alumina company, Alpart, many years ago.
“It would be a straight swap,” Chuck said.
However, a source told the Jamaica Observer Central late last week that proposal no longer seemed feasible — at least for the short term. That’s because, although money has been budgeted for the courthouse, there is no allocation for a new examination depot.
“It seems, we have to find another way,” the source said.
Stakeholders in Mandeville agree that the more than 200-year-old courthouse at the centre of Mandeville is too cramped and can no longer adequately fulfil its role as the parish’s premier centre of justice. In fact, a long-standing proposal for it to be converted to a museum appears to sit well with most people.
However, talk of building a modern justice complex on the 40 acres of donated land at Kingsland has met strong resistance because many feel it is too far from the centre of Mandeville.
Objectors concede that the town is expanding in all directions very rapidly. However, they insist that transportation costs to Kingsland would prove too onerous for most people needing to visit court.
Chuck told journalists at the opening of the St Elizabeth Justice Centre in Santa Cruz recently that the delay in finding a suitable place for a new courthouse in Mandeville was very “frustrating”.
During a meeting with justices of the peace in Mandeville last year, Chuck urged town elders to speedily come with a proposal which will allow the building of the new courthouse.
“The Ministry of Justice is not going to come and build a courthouse…without getting a feel from the residents of Manchester, whether it is an appropriate place to have a courthouse,” he said then.
