BLACK RIVER, St Elizabeth — He was warmly welcomed by Comrades, but councillor for the Southfield Division Gregory Myers was left in no doubt by Labourites that they considered him a traitor after he formally switched sides yesterday.

“I am very upset,” Nadine Tulloch of the Southfield Division told journalists immediately after Myers’s switch from the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) to the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) at the monthly meeting of the St Elizabeth Parish Council.

The switch increased the PNP’s majority in the St Elizabeth Parish Council to 10-5 over the JLP.

“I am upset because he was elected on the JLP ticket and now he has crossed over to the other party. I feel betrayed…” declared the green-clad Tulloch.

She argued that Myers — who took over the Southfield Division in the local government elections of 2012, replacing his father Shirley Myers who had served for 26 years — should have resigned and “let the people of the division choose who they want to choose”.

Inside the parish council meeting Myers also came under bitter attack from the minority leader Jeremy Palmer, JLP councillor for the Pedro Plains Division and a former mayor of Black River.

“The people of Top Hill, Southfield and all the other areas, (including) my wife and I have been double-crossed, because we voted early and faithfully for him (Myers), but not as a PNP councillor,” said Palmer.

In explaining his decision to “sever links” with the JLP, Myers, a teacher and guidance counsellor, told fellow councillors that “my decision to cross the floor today was thoroughly contemplated and went through consultations with several stakeholders…”

“I can say my decision was not a light one. This is not a divorce from the people, but a way to serve the people in a setting that provides collaboration and growth. My intent is in no way malicious, as people relationships and community are always at the heart of my daily interaction…”

To loud applause from PNP councillors, he committed himself to Southfield and to its growth “from strength to strength”.

Mayor of Black River and chairman of the parish council Everton Fisher welcomed Myers to the PNP on behalf of the ruling party and its hierarchy. But he also took the opportunity to emphasise that as far as he was concerned the “cordial relationship” between the two sides in the council would not be undermined.

“I will continue to act fairly and impartially; as chairman of the council, I must act fairly and impartially. This crossing over is no signal that I will differ from that,” declared the mayor.

But Palmer’s displeasure was soon evident. Without naming names, Palmer referred to a letter written some time ago — as it turned out — by member of parliament for St Elizabeth South East Richard Parchment complaining about the quality of representation in the Southfield Division.

“I want to say as a resident of Southfield Division, a letter was sent here two years ago… by another resident of Southfield Division… He complained about the service that was being offered by the councillor. Suffice it to say, he has come here this morning to open his arms to the non-performing councillor he complained about two years ago,” said Palmer.

Parchment later told journalists that, while he did in fact write such a letter, his “intervention” had served to turn around the quality of political representation in Southfield. According to Parchment, after he had provided guidance to Myers and the quality of representation had improved, Palmer had called to say that “things were happening good, because he realised that the road to his house was being bushed now on a regular basis”.

Palmer also told the council meeting that because of poor representation in Southfield he had been forced in the past to truck water to residents of that division.

“I hope that in furtherance of all of this (Myers’s crossing of the floor) that I will have less people to give service to as the neighbouring councillor,” declared Palmer.

But in a follow-up interview after the meeting, Hugh Buchanan, member of parliament for St Elizabeth South West in which Pedro Plains Division falls, questioned Palmer’s right to be trucking water to Southfield, which, he argued, was properly allocated to Pedro Plains.

“He (Palmer) has been short-changing the people of the (Pedro Plains) division who are in my constituency,” charged Buchanan. “I would want him to desist from doing so and to use all of his funding that is available to him as councillor to truck water in that (Pedro Plains) division”.

Myers’s father, Shirley Myers — a former deputy mayor of Black River — was councillor for Southfield, representing the JLP from 1986 to the time of his retirement from active politics in 2012.

In the March 2012 Local Government Elections, Gregory Myers defeated the PNP’s Lilieth Clacken by 318 votes to retain Southfield for the JLP.

However, two months ago, Myers was defeated in a delegate selection by businessman Albert Williams as the JLP’s divisional chairman and standard-bearer for Southfield.

Myers has insisted that his rejection by delegates was just the “final nail in the box” leading to his decision to quit the JLP. Myers cited “lack of respect” and an absence of support for his divisional representation by the JLP as the real reasons for his departure.

Yesterday, Palmer asserted his belief that Myers’s rejection by delegates motivated his crossing of the floor.

“He was resoundingly defeated two months ago, so it is not any high road decision that he has taken,” said Palmer. “It’s a decision that is founded in opportunism, seeking to extend his political life…,” he added.