I would be grateful if you would print my thoughts on Mandeville in response to the article ‘This is not the Mandeville we used to know’. The very headline determines the yesterday thoughts about Mandeville, and as a child of Mandeville and a representative of this town, I have to say that unfortunately Mandeville, like Montego Bay and other areas in Jamaica, are not what they used to be.

I have been saying this for years. But somehow my criticisms and thoughts have fallen on deaf ears. The lack of attention to the fastest-growing community in Jamaica, the lack of planning and the lack of implementation of a comprehensive plan to take care of the most basic needs, such as safety and water, have again put one of our beautiful towns in crisis.

Mandeville needs a modern police force. It needs more patrol cars (there are two for 53 communities. In the 1980s, there were 10! The force is undermanned. The police station needs a one-way mirror and modern forensic capabilities. The station needs more space, the station needs to become a multi-storied building that provides office space and parking and areas for the men to rest and to bathe.

That the community has benefited from the bauxite industry has been our saving grace, but not our complete saviour, for this illustrious industry has provided a reign of employment and wealth creation that has only prevented the disaster from happening earlier.

The lack of any other real job opportunity for the disgruntled youth, the lack of real agricultural policies have only created more pressure on a poverty stricken sector as farmers scratch out a meagre living under impossible circumstances of archaic farming methods, an inability to protect the theft of products and animals adding to an ineffectual society of depressed, angry, hopeless people.

Yes, the returning residents have helped to provide jobs for some of the boys, and the fact that they are here has helped whole communities to change in look and structure, but the fact that they became the target of robbery and corruption early in the day and were left in a helpless situation of not knowing where to turn has not encouraged others to come.

For each one who has suffered the indignity and terror of the gunman, for each one who has not received water on a daily basis, and for each one who has had to fight through a maze of red tape and bureaucracy for the simplest of things has pressured many into leaving.

Our image of being a nice little place that has no crime has, in itself, created a false impression that has allowed a town to explode in magnitude with little or no planning for its development. The ugly truth is that as places expand, as the system becomes pressured and as patches are placed on gaping wounds, it is only a matter of time before an explosion occurs.

And this is where we are. Mandeville, like the country, is now exploding under 18 years of patching. With no water and with it no hope of real investment, with a meagre amount of funds from the parish council to repair roads, cut bush, clean drains and implement the type of cleaning and management that a town of this size requires, it is patently obvious that radical change is needed. (By the way, the drain pictured in your newspaper was cleaned and repaired this morning. I was not aware of the problem until I saw the photograph.)

The ‘stale urine’ smell is actually much less than a few years ago, since we erected a new facility in the car park adjoining the market and since I opened two bathrooms in the market. The town is much cleaner since we instituted a $50,000 fine for urinating in the streets and the town is much cleaner since we collect garbage twice a day, since we now have roving sweepers and since we wash the market and surrounding areas every Sunday.

But these measures cannot prevent old habits, cannot prevent nor create from nothing, the kind of attention that a town like Mandeville requires, as thousands pour into the town every day from surrounding areas of Manchester, Clarendon, St Elizabeth, Westmoreland and Trelawny.

Coupled with this are problems of flooding, as the swell of residential homes on hills turn their storm water on to the roads, and what were once small manageable drains become inadequate to cope with the stress of business places.

It is clear that old laws have to be thrown out to allow modern expansion of buildings to go up beyond three floors (the fire engine can’t reach any building higher than this!). It is clear that we have to provide more parking and this has to come from multi-storey buildings that can accommodate floors for parking. It is clear that traffic lights are needed all over the town and that street lights, street signs and proper direction have to be maintained.

Roads need to be cut and roads need to be widened. Our planning department has already modernised our planning and we know where the sinkholes are, where the earthquake faults are and where we need to increase our green areas. Again, this all comes back to proper planning and proper management.

But bad decisions create bad situations, and the 400 street lights that Manchester lost without explanation two years ago would surely protect whole areas that are dark and dangerous.

That Jamaica has one of the most restrictive firearm licenses law in the world does not help when Jamaica has the highest murder rate in the world. That Jamaicans are told that they may not arm themselves to protect themselves is as stupid as saying that we are incapable of governing ourselves. Yet we puff up our chests and pretend that all is well.

Well, it is not. We are in danger. We are not supposed to live like this. We are not supposed to be invaded, robbed and killed. We are not supposed to think that this is how it is to be. We are not to think that there is no better, that this is it, hug it up.

No, I will lead the right to life! I will lead and take the people of Mandeville to a place where they can effect change in their lives. I will not stand by and allow someone in Kingston to tell me how many street lights I can get, or that I must allow a woman to walk alone in the dark with nothing to defend herself. I will not stand by and allow the murderers of men, women and children to walk free. They must die. They must pay for what they have done. And they must pay quickly. And anyone who kidnaps or abducts any citizen must be put to death! Enough is enough.

Eighteen years of poor management and poor excuses have caused a multitude of problems that now are on top of us. So please, stop thinking of us as a nice, quiet, cool community. The place is heating up, and if we don’t have the courage and the will to push back, to fight and to demand a better way of life, more of us will be found in the dump.

The town of Mandeville will never be the same again. We have been shaken to the core. We have hit the bottom. But I promise you, we will come back. I will do what I was elected to do. Of that, you can be assured.

Sally Porteous is a Jamaica Labour Party councillor and the deputy mayor of Mandeville