Development plan for Falmouth a possibility – Robertson
WESTERN BUREAU – A major development plan for Falmouth in Trelawny could be unveiled shortly, Development Minister Paul Robertson hinted recently.
“The prime minister, (P J Patterson), when he made me minister of development, gave me certain instructions and one of them was that Falmouth had to be a priority. The time has come,” Robertson said last week.
He was speaking at the Star Fish Hotel in Trelawny, following an extended tour of the Trelawny capital. The tour took him to the dilapidated police station, the historic Albert George Market, Hampden Wharf, the post office and the old William Knibb Baptist Manse.
He was accompanied by the town’s mayor, Jonathan Bartley; the Member of Parliament, Dr Patrick Harris; and a team from the Development Bank of Jamaica.
The minister did not disclose the nature of the development planned for the town but expressed confidence in its speedy implementation.
“I am not at liberty to state that specific development now. (But) a serious set of investors came to me to discuss a certain project and we are not talking in theoretical terms or ‘pipe dreams’, we are talking some concrete reality. It is only a matter of time, and I am willing to be quoted on that,” Robertson said.
Meanwhile, the minister, along with Kingsley Thomas, executive chairman of the Development Bank of Jamaica, toured the sites on the MP’s invitation.
Since his election in the October 2002 general elections, Dr Harris, who has his sights set on the establishment of a slave museum in Falmouth, has been campaigning for the development of the town as a historical and cultural tourism destination.
