WESTMORELAND, Jamaica — Mayor of Savanna-la-Mar, Danree Delancy says the Savanna-la-Mar Transportation Centre which is currently located at Barracks Road/Hendon will be relocated to 65 Beckford Street come Monday, April 29.

This, Delancy said has become necessary as the owners of the property at Hendon have expressed their desire to retake control of the property for development.

“We have no choice at this time but to revert to our property on Beckford Street so come the 29th of April that is where the transportation centre in Savanna-la-Mar will be located,” Delancy shared while speaking with Observer Online.

“We are currently putting in bathroom facilities, we are currently cleaning up the space, we are currently ensuring that water and electrical supply are in place. We should be putting in a booth for the transport authority personnel and all of that. All the amenities that go with a transportation centre will be in place,” the Savanna-la-Mar mayor said.

According to Delancy, it is expected that the relocation will impact traffic flow in the area greatly.

“We have met with the Transport Authority and the superintendent of police as well as other police under his command in the town and they have expressed that based on their experiences and based on the studies done it should impact traffic flow greatly.

“Only one concern was pointed out and that is the issue of a drive through that leads from the road to a popular eatery across the road from the proposed location for the transportation centre and that is being addressed. I think we just have to look at taking out that drive through from off Beckford Street and maybe have them do the drive through from within the complex itself,” he said.

Noting that the council got approximately two years notice as well as received an extension from the property owners, the mayor said they were unable to acquire other properties within the town space of a larger size.

However, despite the Beckford Street property being smaller than the current location at Hendon, Delancy is not too concerned.

“Experience has shown us that at no particular time you’ll have all the taxis and all the buses in the space at any one given time. Some will be on the road going to their destination, some will be on the road coming towards the transportation centre so we’re seeing wherein it can work and to be quite frank, we have no other choice at this time,” he said.

In the meantime, Mayor Delancy is calling for commuters, taxi and bus operators to cooperate in the coming weeks as they adjust to the change in location.

“Our taxi operators, bus operators, they play a very pivotal and vital role in our own transportation system and we’re asking them (commuters) for their full cooperation. Maybe when we just start out, in the beginning, everything may not be as how we all want it, it won’t be a perfect thing but we’re trying to make it as seamless and as smooth as possible and as we go along, we’ll iron out the kinks and patch where it needs to be patched up and sort it out properly so that transport operators and commuters can all have a safe, comfortable environment in which to operate,” he said.

“Commuters, your cooperation is of utmost importance. Operators, your cooperation is of utmost importance. We have the police and the Transport Authority pledging their support and we thank them for that as well,” Delancy added.