THE Jamaica Chamber of Commerce's top executives last night called on downtown merchants to close their doors next Tuesday to protest against the government's failure to support pleas for improving the gritty district.

"The members (of the Urban City Renewal Committee) voted unanimously to close next week Tuesday because they feel that we have a plan -- but no implementation programme," said Francis Kennedy, the committee's chairman, during a news conference.

Kennedy said members were also frustrated over the government's failure to restore "law and public order" downtown, as well as committing itself to a long-range urban renewal plan to redevelop the district.

"There has to be a full commitment for downtown Kingston," Kennedy said, explaining it must involve full-fledged government backing "from the highest levels."

But last night, Local Government Minister Arnold Bertram expressed surprise at the decision, saying that the chamber was well aware of an agreed implementation schedule set to start this weekend.

"I'm very surprised," Bertram told the Observer in a telephone interview. "Yesterday (Tuesday) I had an extensive meeting with the chamber leaders. We spent a lot of time looking at what has been done and reviewed what needs to be done.

"We agreed to a programme of implementation which is to begin this weekend and the chamber agreed to a public education programme."

Bertram also said that coming out of Tuesday's approximately three-hour meeting, he had arranged with National Security Minister Dr Peter Phillips to have more police placed downtown for the start of the programme and that he had passed on this information to Kennedy via telephone yesterday morning.

"So I left the (Tuesday morning) meeting thinking we had laid the basis for a partnership and agreed on a timetable for implementation," Bertram said.

However, Kennedy said the meeting failed to offer any assurances that the government would throw its support behind the immediate or long-term needs of downtown.

He said the meeting did produce a commitment to put up $1.5 million toward an "action plan" for the area; however, he described the sum as a pittance, saying it fell short of what's needed for downtown's immediate and long-term needs.

Yesterday evening, the Chamber of Commerce's new president, Michael Ammar Jnr, said: "We have at least 100 merchants who already have committed to the protest."

Ammar, a downtown merchant, said he expected hundreds more to join as word spreads of the shutdown.

He said the Chamber of Commerce's executives had given "their blessing" to the Urban City Renewal Committee's calls for a shutdown.

Ammar repeated his complaints about public disorder downtown, which has suffered ongoing decline over the years. He said ganja is sold openly in the streets; merchants are paying protection money to criminals; and street vendors sell where they please, which causes constant congestion. In addition, "there is a lack of police presence", he said.

In recent months, business leaders have proposed a long-range plan to restore downtown, which would include remodelling facades, relocating street vendors and even setting up facilities for cruise ships and tourists. It's one of many plans proposed over the years, which have never gotten off the ground.

"We need a partnership between government and the private sector," said Ammar. "It's a win-win situation."

Ammar speculated that the political will to take action does not exist because politicians need not worry about courting downtown constituents. They have their votes "already locked up", he said.

He brushed aside suggestions that the government is reluctant to act because this is an election year.

"This is a long-range issue, and it has nothing to do with politics," he said.

But Bertram said that while he was not denying that the conditions downtown were in need of improvement, the large numbers of vendors there, sometimes as much as 14,000, made the problem more difficult to deal with.

He said that one of the problems they had was merchants giving street vendors goods to sell, therefore one of the measures that will be enforced is the seizure of goods from persons who refuse to leave the streets.

"Nevertheless, the KSAC (Kingston and St Andrew Corporation) will be going ahead with the implementation and I am hoping that when they (merchants) see the commitment they will work with us," Bertram said.

Executive Class

Gardens with Gravel

Death to the Mullet!