Member of Parliament (MP) for St Mary South Eastern Dr Norman Dunn yesterday declared the Westmoreland Oval in Annotto Bay, part of the constituency, as the premier sporting facility in the north eastern Jamaica parish.

Making his maiden presentation in the Constituency Debate in the House of Representatives, Government MP Dr Dunn, who was elected Member of Parliament in October 2017 in a by-election, following the death of then Opposition MP, dental surgeon Dr Winston Green in August 2017, said the venue was fully upgraded and was ready to continue staging many of the events that it had been hosting, while now fully retrofitted to accommodate other important activities.

Among the new additions to the facility are floodlights and a concrete perimeter wall.

“Mr Speaker over 18 years, and three MPs from the other side trying to develop Gray’s Inn, a football complex, going as far as depositing a portion of their CDF [Constituency Development Fund] allocation to get it up and running, it was unsuccessful. And in less than two years since becoming a Member of Parliament I was able to establish the multipurpose complex at Westmoreland Oval in Annotto Bay,” Dr Dunn told the House.

“This facility that sat in ruin and degradation and used as a cow pasture for countless years was fully renovated and refurnished into a multipurpose sports complex,” the MP, who is also a pharmacist and businessman, went on.

“Thanks to the CHASE Fund, the Sports Development Foundation, TPDCo [Tourism Product Development Company] and Minister (Olivia) Grange for partnering with us in making this improvement possible. Now the community of Annotto Bay and the constituency of South-east St Mary have a brand-new home ground where they can meet together to enjoy a game of night football, netball or cricket.

“We can now open our doors to host Eastern Champs, while continuing to host matches in the ISSA (Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association) Schoolboy Competition.

“We are positioning Annotto Bay as the sporting mecca of Southeast St Mary. We are sending an invitation to the JFF [Jamaica Football Federation] and the Premier League to come look at the Westmoreland Oval as your home ground, soon to the renamed the Annotto Bay Multipurpose Complex,” Dr Dunn said.

The Westmoreland Oval, bordered by the Annotto Bay Hospital to the north and the Caribbean Sea to the south, was for many years the leading sporting venue in the parish of St Mary, but fell into disrepair in recent years.

It has, among other things, served as the home ground for former top National League team Spartan; as well as Annotto Bay All Stars, and current eastern Super League team Axum.

The venue also formerly hosted important cricket matches in the eastern Jamaica league, parish matches, and the now defunct competition between Jamaica’s All Sugar selection against the All-Guyana sugar team known as GuySuco, an aggregation that included former West Indies star opening batsman Roy Fredericks.