The much publicised Spanish Town Redevelopment Company (SPARCOM) is to be up and running early in the new year to spearhead a raft of development initiatives for the historic old capital, according to Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange, the information minister and member of parliament for Central St Catherine.

Grange told the Observer yesterday that offices to house the operation are being set up and a board of directors will soon be appointed.

SPARCOM, conceptualised under the former People’s National Party administration, is expected to undertake a comprehensive rehabilitation of Spanish Town, complete with a new civic centre, international trade zone, historic square, commercial centre and courthouse.

The plan is part of a broader scheme to link Port Royal, Kingston and Spanish Town as tourist attractions.

“We have worked very hard over the last couple of years to try to control violence and to have peace in Spanish Town,” said Grange. “I think it has worked and we must commend the people of Spanish Town for ensuring that they maintain peace. Now, what they need are opportunities.”

According to Grange, the “objective next year” will be to see to the provision of jobs, the development of communities and the education of children living in Spanish Town and its environs.

She said the now dormant Jamaica Social Investment Fund’s Inner-City Basic programme will also make a comeback.

“This programme will be put back on stream early in the year to deal with infrastructural development and social services within the communities of Tawes Pen, Shelter Rock, Twickenham Park, Central Village, Africa, March Pen, among others,” Grange said.

“Some projects have been sitting on the shelf, some are long overdue and that is why SPARCOM is so important because that is the entity that will pull it all together and drive the whole development process in Spanish Town,” she added.

According to Grange, “the framework is in place and the Urban Development Corporation (UDC), the Office of the Prime Minister and the Tourism Ministry will have a role to play”.

In the meantime, she said Spanish Town, which has, in the past, been put on lockdown by rival criminal gangs, has been experiencing a respite attributable to efforts on the part of the citizenry and the removal of several key criminal elements whether by their counterparts or the security forces.

“People have said to me it is the best Christmas they have had in a long time,” said Grange. “People are moving around freely.”

She said the old capital in the new year will also benefit from an Internet café and homework centre, a new sewerage plant, improvements in the water supply and several basic school facilities.

“You are going to find an improvement in the housing stock; you will see much being done in the first three months, you will see an actual difference,” she promised, adding that the changes will cut across political lines.