THE National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) enforcement team said it took action in more than 600 cases against companies and individuals who were not in compliance with the various environmental and planning laws up to November this year.

The agency said it issued 143 breach notices, 185 warning notices, 139 warning letters, 54 enforcement notices, 19 cessation orders, 22 stop notices, 31 notice of intention to suspend permits and 28 summonses.

The actions were taken under the Beach Control Act, Natural Resources and Conservation Authority Act, The Town and Country Planning Authority and the Wildlife Protection Act, the agency said. For the same period last year, the agency took more than 500 enforcement actions.

The agency said it has also increased the enforcement efforts in the parishes of Westmoreland, Portland and St Catherine, and noted that In November it trained 20 officers from the Island Special Constabulary Force and Jamaica Constabulary Force in Westmoreland.

“Through a partnership with the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), NEPA has increased the enforcement staff in the Negril. Under a new J$7-million operational project funded by the TEF, the agency will increase its work to mitigate the continued spread of disorderly planning and environmental stresses that have come to characterise the resort town,” NEPA said in a release.

Enforcement officers and the members of the constabulary, it said, have toured the Negril Environmental Protected Area and the Negril Marine Park, and promised to continue to strengthen its enforcement action and team in 2014.