Raymoth Notice, who last week said he would resign as head of the St Catherine local government if the authorities failed to come to grips with crime in the parish’s capital of Spanish Town, now says that he is being undermined by some members of his own side in the parish council.

He also claimed that he has had to resist the efforts of parliamentarians who wanted him to use the resources of the parish council unethically, but both in the case of the MPs and councillors declined to name names.

Notice lashed out after a pamphlet, raising questions about the relationship between the local government and the notorious One Order gang and hinting at corruption in the arrangements for cleaning the Spanish Town market, was posted on the main door of the parish council building last week.

“This threat is an internal thing,” Notice told the Observer. “It is coming directly from particular councillors – three JLP councillors…. It is no secret in the parish council who could have been responsible for it. But this is the behaviour of cowards.”

The JLP (Jamaica Labour Party) has 23 of the 40 members of the St Catherine Parish Council.

Notice suggested a link between the councillors allegedly attempting to discredit his leadership and parliamentarians who he claimed wanted him to act unethically. He vowed to resist the pressures.

“As long as I am mayor I will not allow the council to be used as a political feeding tree, nor will I be dictated to by any MP or ruled by any MP,” Notice said. “I refuse to be. I have in the past refused to be dictated to by political stalwarts or MPs because their requests were unprincipled.”

Notice’s 14-month reign as chairman of the St Catherine Parish Council and mayor of Spanish Town has been marked by escalating violence in the town, primarily between the One Order and Klansman gangs. Scores of people have been killed in what the police say is a fight for turf and control of the town’s extortion racket.

One Order members are based in communities which vote for the JLP, of which Notice is a member, while Klansman members are from communities that support the People’s National Party (PNP), which controls the national government.

The violence has escalated since the killing in Kingston in mid-July of One Order leader Oliver “Bubba” Smith and his burial a fortnight ago.

Last week, in an appeal for the authorities to launch initiatives to stamp out the violence, Notice said he would step down if the central government did not show itself to be effective in tackling the problem. However, he said he would wait all of 12 months before he acted.

Last Thursday, the day after his declaration, the notice appeared asking about “the relationship between the parish council and One Order” and about who had received “first $300,000 to clean the Spanish Town market in 2003”.

There was also an issue about the treatment of someone for gunshot wounds.

Notice, a former prison doctor who counts himself part of the so-called reformist wing of the JLP, saw the pamphlet as part of an attempt “to destabilise my administration”.