THE Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) has launched a competition to design a monument in honour of Hugh Shearer, a former prime minister of Jamaica.

The monument will be built outside the shrine of Heroes Park, next to those of former Prime Ministers Michael Manley and Sir Donald Sangster. The design competition opened yesterday and will close at 3:00 pm on Friday, June 2, 2006.

The JNHT has invited Jamaicans at home and abroad to enter a design that would best capture Shearer and his ideals. Only one design will be accepted from each competitor.

There will be a non-refundable registration fee of $1,500 and individuals will be furnished with a plan, application form and brief information on the life of Shearer.

At present, Shearer’s grave inside the park has been clad in marble, and the JNHT has asked that entrants ensure that their designs do not interfere with the grave.

Materials to be used in the construction of the monument must be mainly Jamaican in origin and low maintenance in nature. Entrants are to use a $5-million construction cost as a guide to the design of the monument, said the JNHT.