MAYOR of Kingston Councillor Delroy Williams, in addressing the furore over the Government’s decision to extend the hours for parties during the current holiday season, has intimated that people might be overreacting.

“The issue of permits and the Noise Abatement Act, there are several issues, very controversial, but not as bad as we think. All the information we have thus far is that we have been experiencing a significant decline in the demand for entertainment permits for December,” Williams said on Tuesday at the quarterly press briefing of the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development at its Hagley Park Road offices in the Corporate Area.

“Most persons might say to you we have opened the floodgates and there will be event after event, but that is not what we are experiencing at the municipality, we have seen a significant decline in the applications for amusement licences,” the mayor said while noting that the decline “is of some concern to us”.

Under the Noise Abatement Act, event promoters are required to end events at midnight on weekdays and 2:00 am on weekends. But last week, parliamentarians voted in favour of a temporary fix, allowing promoters to host events until 2:00 am on weekdays and 4:00 am on weekends. The measure remains in effect until January 31 next year.

In offering a reason for the stated decline in applications, the mayor said the move to grant the extension “was late”.

“A lot of promoters were getting concerned, information we are getting is that a lot of them would have decided not to have something,” he said. “Last year we had over 700 events in December, this year we are nowhere near that [for approved events], so for residents it will be better for them than last year. The data suggests that this December should be far easier on the residents of the municipality.”

In the meantime, noting that the “multibillion-dollar entertainment industry is an important part of the city’s economy”, Councillor Williams said it was imperative that a compromise be struck.

“The city’s economy is in a major way influenced by this industry and we can’t escape it. Creating an appropriate environment and not putting unnecessary barriers is something that, as a municipality and a Government, we have to pursue at the same time, understanding the different challenges in terms of the residents,” he said.

“One thing is a fact, is that it has to be fixed. We don’t have a lot of venues that are removed from residential areas. As a creative city of music and as a city that persons look to for certain kinds of entertainment, we have to find… not just a solution but a solution that is sustainable,” Williams said, noting, “We don’t have venues at our fingertips, our venues are mixed into our residential areas [and] it creates a confrontational challenge.”

“People have to live and enjoy the peace and the comfort of their home and, at the same time, we have this music that is a part of who we are as a people and the culture that we have to preserve… but in preserving the culture we have to give order to what is happening. Just allowing anything to happen, allowing persons to go anywhere they want, play anything they want, and any time of night they want is a recipe for the denigration of the country,” Williams added.

Earlier this month, Culture Minister Olivia Grange indicated that work has begun to build out Fort Rocky, outside Port Royal, as the island’s first designated entertainment zone. She said the ministry has also staked out three other locations in Negril, Trelawny, and Portmore, where facilities will also be built to host entertainment events.

Entertainment zones are areas in which any legal entertainment and sports activity can be staged any time of day or night unhindered, once the organisers are mindful of the historical value of such sites. While fuelling the entertainment industry, these zones are expected to neutralise the noise nuisance issue.