TRELAWNY, Jamaica – The Trelawny Municipal Corporation (TMC) has announced plans to step up its campaign against individuals putting up illegal buildings across the parish.

Mayor of Falmouth and chairman of the Trelawny Municipal Corporation, Councillor C Junior Gager, speaking during the regular monthly meeting of the corporation on Thursday, warned that the TMC will be taking a zero tolerance approach to the erection of these illegal structures.

He reasoned that interior buildings are prone to collapse in the event of an earthquake or other natural disasters, adding that questions will be asked why the municipality was not monitoring the construction of these buildings.

“They [unauthorised buildings] are going up in droves and we intend to make sure that we capture all that is out there. I believe it is now time for the municipal corporation to send a strong message to owners of iIlegal buildings and I believe it is now time for us to challenge some of them through the court process, and maybe even see if we can make some examples [of them] because whenever there is an earthquake, or any type of disaster, it is usually the municipal corporation that all the blame is thrown on,” Mayor Gager remarked.

“All those who have been hiding and building inferior buildings, let us have an earthquake with the type of magnitude that we had in Turkey the other day, and then you see buildings start to tumble. People will be saying where was the presence of the municipal corporation,” he argued.

Adding that the municipality will have to find these buildings and make sure that they are safe, Gager said, “in doing so we are also sending a message that we love you, we want you to be secure, we don’t want you to die and we don’t want thousands to be dying. Look at what happened again in Turkey, thousands and thousands died. We might not be lucky enough. Therefore, we must stamp our authority. So you’re going to be seeing a different municipal corporation when it comes to illegal buildings.”

-Horace Hines