MANDEVILLE, Manchester — The fear of crime following two murders and a number of robberies since September was the initial trigger.

However, for the small group of demonstrators at the entrance to the Montpelier housing scheme in South Manchester last Thursday, an absence of running water, inadequate street lights and the long-standing issue of land titling were also major problems.

A resident of Montpelier and parish councillor (PNP) for the adjacent Myersville Division in South East St Elizabeth Layton Smith pointed to what he said was a fundamental problem involving bauxite/alumina company Alpart. The company, he said, had failed to properly fulfil its responsibilities by providing facilities such as water and land titles before handing over schemes to the relevant parish council.

Schemes such as Montpelier — located at the base of the mountain which also includes Spur Tree — have been developed by Alpart to accommodate people relocated from bauxite mining areas. Alpart’s mining and refining operations have been closed since 2009 as a result of the global economic recession, but according to Smith, the company is continuing to relocate people.

When contacted on Saturday, Alpart’s Public Relations Manager Julian Keane said his company would “respond by press release on a number of these issues on Monday”.

Smith criticised the Manchester Parish Council for failing to do proper due diligence before approving the Montpelier scheme back in the 1990s. Smith said that as a member of the St Elizabeth Parish Council he would be making sure that the same mistake was not repeated with phase two of the Montpelier Scheme, currently being developed “across the road” in his Myersville Division.

“Alpart for too long has been raping Jamaicans,” said Smith in reference to what he said was the company’s mining of “prime lands” without “adequate compensation” and land reclamation.

“We need to hold Alpart accountable,” said Smith.

The police, who have taken flak following the crime upsurge in Montpelier and neighbouring communities, were actually the subject of praise last Thursday after the constabulary brought in heavy-duty equipment to clear a large area of bush and scrub at the entrance to the community. Residents say criminals had been using the overgrowth as cover to prey on them.

According to the residents, as recently as early last week there were two armed robberies in the area, following other robberies, and most critically the gun murder of two residents in September.

As just over 20 residents — some bearing placards — watched on Thursday, a bulldozer from the police Area Three headquarters (responsible for Manchester, St Elizabeth and Clarendon) rapidly cleared the overgrowth.

“We want to thank the police,” said Delroy Foster, president of the Montpelier Citizens’ Association and Neighbourhood Watch. He claimed that the police had been “working assiduously” in the fight against crime in the community despite major challenges such as “limited mobility”.

Smith has been speaking out recently in the St Elizabeth Parish Council about crime on the border area between South Manchester and South East St Elizabeth, and the need for the police to be better equipped.

On Thursday, he was equally outspoken about the shortcomings of Alpart.

He noted that in the case of Montpelier, although a gravity-feed reservoir was built in the 1990s, and water pipes and fire hydrants were put in, there was no connection to the water main. He identified inadequate lighting and too many road entrances in “breach of the law” as among the other problems.

Smith also pointed to land titling as a major issue, not only for Montpelier but for a range of communities throughout south east St Elizabeth and south Manchester.

“There are people relocated from (mined-out communities) in the sixties and to date have not received title for their land and the Government sitting down and allowing Alpart to get away with these things …we need to put pressure on Alpart now…,” said Smith.

“Alpart need to develop the schemes that they are relocating people to at the fullest before it is handed over to the parish council… and the parish council has to stop taking over these schemes until these things are done,” Smith said.

Foster pointed out that while there was no running water in communities like Montpelier, the precious liquid is being taken from neighbouring well fields at Pepper on the St Elizabeth/Manchester border to Mandeville 12 miles away.

“Alpart, the parish council and the National Water Commission should give us water,” said Foster. “Water run right past our community … and not a drop of water even though water runs from here past our community into Mandeville …” he said.

He, too, argued that “too few residents” have land titles, pointing to the demotivation for potential investors when there “is no water and no land titles”.

All the other problems notwithstanding, crime remained a major issue. Deputy Superintendent Marlene Bailey told the Jamaica Observer that the police would remain vigilant and had assisted in the formation of a neighbourhood watch programme in Montpelier.

She urged residents to be on the alert and to inform the police about strangers and strange happenings.

“We want the citizens to know that once they identify anything that seems out of the ordinary, any strange vehicle, any strange faces in the community, call us, get a good description and call us, don’t take things for granted,” Bailey said.