LUCEA, Hanover — Prime Minister Andrew Holness has provided more information on the Government’s plan to create a new town centre in Lucea, saying that lands are being sought for the development.

“We have been thinking about it and we have a general plan. We started to execute that plan in Morant Bay, because Morant Bay faced the same situation as this town. Same historic town, same issues; and what we did was to identify 25 areas of land and we built out a brand new town called the Morant Bay Urban Centre,” stated Holness.

“We are going to do the same concept here. We are already searching around for lands that we can build out a proper town centre and move some of the critical and essential services there, thereby freeing up space inside here to start to redevelop the town,” he told a massive crowd of green-clad Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) supporters in Lucea, Hanover, shortly after midnight Friday as he continued his party’s campaign for tomorrow’s local government election.

According to Holness, in the coming months and years, the people of Hanover are going to see a lot of activity taking place.

On November 12 last year, the parish kicked off year-long activities for the town which is currently celebrating 300 years of existence.

Holness said the capital town is faced with various challenges.

“In other countries that are doing well, this would be considered a historic town. It would be an attraction in and of itself. Unfortunately, we have allowed the town to just grow, and it has become chaotic,” he said, adding that this cannot be allowed to continue.

“I know that this is where the economic activity of the parish is. People have to survive. People have to come here and sell, but the way in which the town is so clustered and congested, you are not realising the true potential. That is the reality. Government just can’t sit back and say, ‘Well, maybe the people there will sort it out’. Because one man might decide that I am going to put a building here. A next man decides that right beside him he is putting up a bar, another man decides that he is putting up a garage and it becomes one whole chaos,” argued Holness.

The JLP leader said that at some point in time, the chaos will cause the town to decay and collapse on itself. Lucea, he cautioned, is almost at that stage.

“[There are] several issues; you don’t have anywhere to park, taxis don’t have anywhere to park, the people in the market are coming on the road. So you don’t have anywhere to walk. Traffic, which has to come through the town, moves very slowly. It’s a bottleneck. We have to address these issues,” he said.

“The other problem is that the town is at sea level. You saw what happened a couple of weeks ago in Negril? It could happen here… Well, your market is almost below sea level. If you have a shower of rain, the whole place is flooded,” Holness added. “We have to start to think ahead.”

Pointing to the ongoing construction of the Montego Bay perimeter road, he explained that the Government has a similar plan for Lucea.

“You are going to see a bypass of the town and that in itself will decongest the town — make it freer because traffic that is not destined to stop here can go around, while the traffic that is intended for here can move more freely. So, I say all of these things to you to say that you have a Government that is taking on age-old problems and finding solutions. You can believe in the Government because as the Government said, ‘Yes, this is what we’re going to do’. The Government in the [next] breath says, ‘See it, we did it there, or see, it is happening there’,” Holness added.

Earlier in the night, during a stop in congested Hopewell which connects Montego Bay with Lucea and Negril, he also promised that the Government is looking at the best route to create a bypass road.

“We can’t keep the situation where small Hopewell becomes a bottleneck for St James and for Lucea and Negril,” stated the JLP leader. “We will have to make a bypass road for Hopewell.”

He added, “We are currently surveying the area to see where is the best place for it to go. Should we put it over the hill and behind the town? We could, but we will have to buy up some land.”

One supporter suggested running it across the sea.

However, Holness pointed out that while that is a good suggestion, it would be too costly and the Government does not intend to borrow money to undertake the project.