FALMOUTH, Trelawny — THE management of the Trelawny Cooperative Credit Union (TCCU) is expressing grave concern over the protracted delay by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) in approving the designs for the construction of a building to house its Water Square, Falmouth branch.

According to General Manager of TCCU Winston Tomlinson, the credit union is forced to provide service to its over 30,000 members in existing cramped space because the JNHT has failed to approve the building plan which has been submitted to it for more than two years.

The JNHT regulates development in the town’s designated historic district.

“We can’t serve our members adequately in this small space and we don’t have anywhere else to go and they [JHNT] are still beating around the bush,” Tomlinson lamented. “Why has it taken over two years?”

The banker noted that in a letter dated June 25, 2013, the JNHT “informed the TCCU of discrepancies why they could not sanction the plan”.

He expressed disbelief that one of the JNHT’s objections was “because of disparities with windows of the existing building”.

“They were talking about the windows of the present building and they wanted us to change the windows of the present building in order for us to get approval for another building. That doesn’t make any sense!” Tomlinson exclaimed. “It’s not a matter that we are doing any repairs. So I don’t know why they are giving us the runaround.”

He noted that since responding to the JNHT’s June 2013 letter outlining that the concerns regarding the discrepancies were addressed, the regulatory body is yet to communicate with the credit union.

“For the past two years we can’t get anything done. And we are not getting anywhere. I just wrote to them recently and the last time they wrote to us was in June 2013. And all they were saying is that the parking area is not viable and should be revamped. But we told them we don’t have a parking area, we are not creating a parking area,” Tomlinson stressed.

He added: “We just want to know what the problem is, and we can’t hear from them. And our architect says it doesn’t make any sense we go to the [Trelawny] Parish Council because they can’t do anything about it. It has to be signed off in Kingston [at the JHNT]. So we have to wait. But we trying for more than two years now to get the thing and can’t get it. We just want to find out what is happening.”

Up to press time last night, the JNHT had not responded to e-mailed queries from the Observer West.

JNHT, in 1997, proclaimed sections of Falmouth a heritage district in a bid to regulate and preserve its rich Georgian architecture.

As a result, no infrastructure development, large-scale or domestic, can take place there without the heritage watchdog’s approval, and all development must conform to the Georgian theme.

The JNHT’s heritage architectural review board polices all plans to ensure compliance.

But there have been howls of protest from several interests in Falmouth, which are contending that the review board is unwilling to compromise to facilitate major investment in the town, and is becoming a hindrance to its economic development.

In 2005, then president of the Trelawny Chamber of Commerce and Industry Dennis Seivwright lashed out at the JNHT over its refusal to grant approval for a multi-million-dollar development of the historic Hampden Wharf.

The problem, according to Seivwright, is the lengthy approval process required to conform with the heritage watchdog’s rules.

“We are on the brink of defying the regulations of the heritage trust because we are frustrated…” Seivwright said at the time.

“We are at the point of instructing our community to defy the rules and set our own standards and set our own preservation of heritage and forget about them, because this bureaucracy is burying us in the sand and soon we won’t even exist because we are a town of derelict structures living among flies, rats and roaches,” he fumed.

Back then, late Trelawny Custos Roylan Barrett recalled one instance when it took over five years to get the go-ahead for a house to be constructed on Duke Street, one of Falmouth’s main thoroughfares.

On another occasion, Barrett complained that the Salvation Army lost a grant for the construction of a basic school at the back of its Market Street premises because the JNHT took too long to approve the plan.

Yesterday, Custos of Trelawny Paul Muschett promised to contact Chairman of the JNHT Ainsley Rodriques about the matter.

“I need to secure a copy of the [JNHT] letter from the Trelawny Coop Credit Union and I will discuss the matter with the Chairman of the Trust,” said Muschett, who is also first vice-chairman of the Georgian Society of Jamaica.

The intervention, he stressed, will be done in his capacity as custos, and not as an official of the Georgian Society of Jamaica.