MONTEGO BAY, St James – Representatives from the two major political parties vying for parliamentary seats in the parish of St James, have vowed to lobby government for portions of some tourism-related taxes to remain in the parish, if they are elected in the August 27 polls.

“I believe that we should benefit directly from the tourism industry and so the head taxes from the cruise ship passengers and the departure taxes from the airlines, should go directly in developing communities in the resort areas,” said Francis Tulloch, the People’s National Party’s (PNP) candidate for West Central St James.

“This is something that I have been advocating for and I will continue to do so because I believe that for people to buy into the tourism industry some of the earnings from the industry should go into the communities to make the people feel the benefits of the industry,” he added.

Tulloch, a former tourism minister, was speaking on Thursday night at a political forum hosted by the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the Montego Bay Civic Centre in that resort city.

His rival, the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Clive Mullings, agreed.

He argued that the “ploughing back” of such taxes in the resort city would help to address some of the social and economic ills facing the city, and also promised to lobby government to make the funds available.

Montegonians have long argued that the lack of capital injection in basic infrastructural projects in the resort city and the inability to undertake the maintenance of existing projects on a timely basis are preventing the city from delivering a world-class tourism product.

Earlier this year, the St James Parish Council passed a resolution calling for that local body to receive a portion of the head taxes collected from cruise ship and airport stopovers.

The local authority wants US$2 for every visitor arriving by air and US$0.50 each from cruise ship passengers who visit the island through the city’s various ports.

At Thursday night’s forum in which Dr Horace Chang (JLP), North West St James; Donald Colomathi (PNP)East Central St James and Royston Richards (Independent), East Central St James, also participated, the high levels of crime and violence, unemployment, lack of housing solutions and the deplorable condition of roads in the area were highlighted.

It was generally agreed that the protracted delays in obtaining approvals for development projects were also stifling the growth of the parish.

“We have lost out in millions of dollars of investments because of the delays in giving approvals,” Mullings said; adding that a JLP government would approve the requisite permits within three months.

For his part, Tulloch said steps should be taken to have all approval agencies under one roof in an effort to ensure that approvals are granted on a timely basis.

The political representatives also agreed that agriculture, and the expansion of the IT and tourism sectors should be aggressively pursued in an effort to create more jobs in the parish.

The PNP’s candidate for North West Central St James, Henry McCurdy, as well as its candidate for South St James, Derrick Kellier; Ed Bartlett, the JLP’s representative in East Central St James; the National Democratic Movement’s (NDM) candidate for West Central St James; and Noel Donaldson (JLP) South St James were absent from the list of constituency representatives who will be contesting the four parliamentary seats in upcoming elections in the parish.