MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Mayor of Mandeville and chairman of the Manchester Municipal Corporation, Donovan Mitchell says the proliferation of used car marts cannot be restricted in the south-central town.

“… If it is a legal entity that a man has worked hard and has invested his money into car marts… there is not much we can do,” he told the Jamaica Observer last week.

Mitchell was responding to a recent Jamaica Observer story headlined “Increase in used car marts affecting other businesses in Manchester”, in which Member of Parliament for Manchester North Western Mikael Phillips said the proliferation of used car marts in Mandeville was affecting the expansion of legitimate business opportunities, and spoiling the aesthetics of the town.

Car marts, which are popular in Mandeville and its environs, have been rapidly increasing on lands adjacent to the Winston Jones Highway to Spur Tree Hill main road over the years.

Phillips had said the car marts make the parish look ugly, and urged the business community to hold the municipal corporation and National Works Agency accountable.

However, Mitchell said the development order does not restrict business people from opening car marts.

“Car marts and the proliferation of such started way before my time…,” said Mitchell, who was sworn in as mayor of Mandeville in 2016.

“If I own a piece of land, the development order does not restrict me from doing that sort of business… Can the municipal corporation tell me I cannot put a car mart on this piece of land once I am paying my taxes and relevant licences, and I have applied and everything is okay?” he asked.

“I am getting that people don’t want this whole heap of car marts in the parish but the municipal corporation can’t stop the car mart — it is a business,” he said.

He said Mandeville is the used cart mart capital of Jamaica, and likened the situation to overseas.

“If you look in the US, there are some states you go to that do farming, there are some states that do motor vehicles, there are some that do lumber — depending on the states,” he said.

“I have always said to people, ‘Mandeville is the used car mart capital of Jamaica because people love Mandeville,’ ” he added.

He said, however, that the municipality has acted in clamping down on car marts using roadways to park cars awaiting sale.