MANDEVILLE, Manchester – Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidate for Central Manchester Sally Porteous says the growth of industry in this central highlands town and its surrounds through overseas investment will be high on her agenda should she be elected member of parliament in elections – due this year.

“Jamaica needs to be industrialised and I intend to make sure that Central Manchester receives her fair share of industry,” Porteous, who is deputy mayor of Mandeville, told the Rotary Club of Mandeville at their weekly luncheon meeting

at the Golf View Hotel last Tuesday.

New jobs would be created as a result of industrialisation, she argued. In its absence, crime would continue “unabated”.

Porteous said she was already in the process of forming an investment committee that would target industry from abroad and she invited Rotarians to join the committee to “work with me and to guide me accordingly”.

Porteous said she already had on her committee people who would “target” China and Israel. The expert on Israel would advise on drip irrigation technology and greenhouse farming, she said. She was interested in others “who can target the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and Caricom and any other country that you think we should approach for investment opportunities”.

Porteous said the activities of the investment committee including overseas trips would be funded by an allocation for constituency development.

Opposition Leader Bruce Golding has said such funds would be made available for conditional use by every elected parliamentarian, should the JLP – which has been in Opposition for 18 years – take political power. Under Golding’s plan described by Porteous as “brilliant”, 2.5 per cent of the national budget will be used to fund projects identified by members of parliament. The JLP anticipates that upwards of $60 million would be available for use by each MP under the scheme.

The Central Manchester parliamentary seat is currently held by the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) with communications specialist Vando Palmer pencilled in as the man to replace member of parliament John Junor, who will retire come the elections. But Palmer’s candidacy has been under review in recent months by the hierarchy of the PNP following allegations of spousal abuse. The PNP is expected to make a final decision regarding Palmer this week.

Porteous charged that the PNP had consistently failed the people of Mandeville and wider Manchester. She identified inadequate water supplies and rising crime as among the main features of the ruling party’s allegedly poor performance.

“Mandeville has been given a straw basket to carry water,” she said. “With only 2.3 million gallons of water entering the town each day, instead of the required six million gallons, whole communities go without water for most of the week.

“This unacceptable, frustrating state of affairs has not only left angry, helpless people in a position of not being able to start or end the day normally, but has created havoc in our schools and other public facilities, as toilets cannot flush and hands are not washed.

“We have health problems here that we would not have if we had a proper supply of water, to say nothing of the extra cost that the public has to bear when they have to purchase water. This, plus the cost of the rapid response units that have to truck water to areas where there is no piped water has added to the financial burden on the public purse and is totally unacceptable. Surely money would have been better spent if pipes had been laid and water provided to all these residents,” Porteous said.