Dear Editor,

News reports tell us that the National Housing Trust chairman, Kingsley Thomas, recently addressed the Clarendon Chamber of Commerce in May Pen, and said that in addition to developing the new town, the NHT will be pledging funds for development plans for the existing major urban centres in Jamaica. He is also reported to have said that too many of Jamaica's towns lack a cohesive plan, and that the next stage in the new town development was the consultative process. What an enlightened approach. Or is it?

At a panel discussion on the proposed new town, hosted by the Jamaican Institute of Planners (JIP) on September 26, 2001, Mr Thomas was one of the presenters, along with noted planner Arlene Dixon, environmentalist Peter Espeut, and Clifton Yap, president of the Jamaican Institute of Architects (JIA).

Among the many criticisms made of the project, was that committing our very scarce resources into building a new town should not be a priority at this time, when all of our existing towns and cities are in dire need of proper planning, maintenance and development. Additionally, housing should be planned to integrate with the development of our towns and parishes, instead of being built in an ad hoc, sprawling manner as was being done.

Mr Thomas replied that the NHT's mandate is to build houses, not to fix the problems of towns and cities. He further stated that, because of the great need for housing in Jamaica, it was more important to build, than to wait on planning to be done.

To what can we now attribute this remarkable change in the NHT's approach and mandate? Are we to believe that this is not just a masterful public relations effort to sell this grandiose project, for which the only rationale given to date was summed up by Mr Donald Moore, the head of project management for NHT, who has been quoted as saying "We're moving the traffic to a certain town, you'll have access to that facility from anywhere in Jamaica. We are almost trying to put forward another focus point for the population to coalesce around."

If Mr Thomas and the NHT were truly concerned about proper planning and the consultative process, they would have collaborated with the various planning agencies and held public consultations before, not after, they decided to build a new town, spent the money to acquire the 11,500 acres, and held an international competition with its attendant costs, such as flying in and paying judges from around the world, among other expenses.

The first step should have been to seek responses to some basic questions, such as whether we need a new town. Does it fit into a comprehensive development plan for the parish and the country? Should it be a priority at this time over many other pressing needs for resources? And, most of all, would it not make more economic, social and environmental sense, to plan and upgrade our existing towns and cities, and build new houses as an integral part of our existing urban centres, so that we can take advantage of existing infrastructure, employment opportunities, and amenities such as schools, hospitals, police and fire stations?

Further, why should our NHT contributions be used to fund the planning of our urban centres? Should not the NHT, instead, co-ordinate their activities with the existing ministries and agencies that are already funded to carry out those planning functions, such as the Ministry of Land an Environment, NEPA, UDC, Ministry of Transport and Works, and the parish councils, for example?

It is unfortunate that, as with Highway 2000, the opinion shapers in our society will blindly applaud as a "good idea", the potentially massive waste and misuse of public resources in developing a new town, since we have again been promised "jobs" and "economic opportunity". It does not appear that the lessons have been learned from other "good ideas" such as the Intech Programme (NetServ), NHDC's Operation PRIDE, and the never-ending Phase 1 of the Northcoast Highway.

They apparently fail to see the correlation between the unchecked power to spend public resources, corruption, political tribalism, economic hardship and crime. We truly have the country that we deserve!

Clifton Yap
The Jamaican Institute of Architects
2A Calendonia Crescent
Kingston 5

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