MONTEGO BAY, St James – The St James Parish Council is to push for the enactment of legislation that will make it illegal for members of the general public to park in spots designated for persons with disabilities.

“We are going to initiate the necessary steps in short order for the legislation to be passed which will allow persons parking in areas designated for the disabled to face a penalty,” said Noel Donaldson, mayor of Montego Bay and chairman of the St James Parish Council.

At the same time, he said the council would, in the meantime, create a number of parking spots designed for persons with disabilities in the resort city.

“In a short period of time you will start to see our signs going around the city where we will designate special areas for persons with disabilities. We are not going to wait on the legislation to be enacted,” Donaldson told the Observer last Thursday shortly after a brief dedication ceremony for a $340,000 ramp at the council’s Municipal Offices on Union Street, Montego Bay.

Donaldson said the ramp would make the council’s offices more user-friendly for persons with disabilities who do business with that local body.

“This is another milestone as we move to provide the highest level of service for St James,” he said.

Arguing that for far too long persons with disabilities have not been accorded with their “rightful” place in the society, Donaldson appealed to the business community to make their businessplaces more accessible.

“We want to encourage every owner of a commercial building to give more access to the disabled because they have been neglected for too long,” he emphasised.

The Montego Bay mayor also used the occasion to announce that the council had begun work on a number of sidewalks in the city in a bid to make them more user friendly.

Meanwhile, president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry Pauline Reid, in her remarks at last Thursday’s ceremony, commended the council on what she described as its “vision and foresight” in constructing the ramp.

She also promised to have discussions with her fellow chamber members with a view to have them undertake projects to make their business places more user-friendly for the disabled.

“I am very pleased with the initiative and I will have dialogue with the business community to encourage them to do likewise,” Reid said.