PORT MARIA, St Mary – Outraged by the thought that the dead would be disturbed, mayor of Port Maria Councillor Richard Creary (Jamaica Labour Party, Richmond Division) has dismissed calls for Highgate cemetery to be used as the location for a new transport centre.

The idea of exhumation to accommodate the facility, he fumed, “is ridiculous and would be extremely expensive to be done and disrespectful to the dead”.

Creary was speaking during Thursday’s monthly meeting of the St Mary Municipal Corporation.

“Suggestions were even made for the transport centre to be built over the centre. Totally nonsense,” he bellowed, adding that residents who expressed those views were misinformed.

There was a recent media report in which some cabbies and other residents of the congested town of Highgate put the idea on the table as a solution that could be pursued. After shooting down their suggestion at Thursday’s meeting, Creary advised that the local authority is fully aware of the traffic challenges and will put a traffic warden system in place. It is similar, he said, to the one already being used in Port Maria.

“This will see motorists paying for parking spaces,” said the mayor.

He gave an assurance that the municipal corporation is fully exploring all practical solutions to the congestion that plagues the town.