WESTERN BUREAU — Vice-president of the ruling People’s National Party (PNP), Dr Peter Phillips, yesterday expressed confidence that the party will retain control of the St James Parish Council in next month’s local government polls.

“Having a mixture of young people running for the first time, mixed with experienced (candidates) and having re-connected with the people, we are very optimistic,” Phillips said.

He was speaking to reporters during a tour of the inner-city communities of Railway Lane, Hart Street and Barracks Road in the council’s Montego Bay West division.

In last October’s general election, the ruling PNP lost three of the four constituency seats in the parish. Political pundits have interpreted this as a signal of the PNP’s waning popularity in the parish.

When the last local government election was held in 1998, the PNP won 15 of the 17 divisions that were up for grabs.

But the party has now replaced 13 of their candidates who contested the 1998 local government polls and has included Patrick Rosegreen, a former member of parliament for West Central St James in its slate of candidates.

Rosegreen will contest the Salt Spring Division.

According to Phillips, the party’s candidates in St James are committed to serve at the local government level and are quite competent at making decisions that affect the lives of the people.

He added that they have been working hard on the ground, and possess the necessary organisational skills to become successful in the parish.

He told his audience that the PNP has, over the years, implemented a number of policies and programmes that have impacted positively on the lives of the people in the parish.

His list of some of the projects the party has undertaken included:

* the South Gully Drainage Improvement project;

* dualisation of the Howard Cooke Boulevard;

* improvement in the services at the Cornwall Regional Hospital;

* the work now being done on the North Gully; and

* improvements at the Cruise Ship Terminal.

He added, however, that more programmes and projects would have to be implemented to improve the conditions in St James.

“We have to deal with the drainage in Railway Lane, for example, and the housing conditions in Railway Lane and Barracks Road and other parts of the city need to be totally renewed,” Philips noted