Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness is adamant that he will not be swayed by the “noise” being made by opponents to Portmore being made Jamaica’s 15th parish and said that the Government is pressing on with its mission to develop the municipality for the benefit of its residents.

Holness expressed his determination during a tour of Portmore Resilience Park that is currently under construction, across from Portmore Mall, and challenged claims by the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) that no consultations were held with Portmore residents on the parish status issue.

Just last week a number Portmore residents, along with prominent members of the PNP, took to the streets with placards alleging that the move to make Portmore a parish was done without speaking with residents.

Some raised the PNP’s claim that the move was being made solely for political gain in favour of the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), while others argued that Portmore was not ready for parish status as it doesn’t have crucial infrastructure such as its own public hospital.

However, on Friday, Holness said “There is no truth” to the claim that the Government went ahead without speaking with residents.

“This discussion started long ago. I am certain that there were several consultations held, and I myself went on a campaign where I visited several churches, held several meetings and explained to persons… When the first set of noise was raised when we were having the local government elections [on February 26, 2024], we were ready to go, but I deliberately delayed because I did not want the move for a parish to, in any way, be brought into a political challenge, and that is where we are now,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter what we do. It is clear that the Opposition will oppose it. In life there are two types of people; there are those that make things happen and those that prevent things from happening. Jamaica can see who are the people making things happen, and they can see who are the people who are either incapable or deliberately trying to prevent things from happening. This park is a perfect example,” Holness said in reference to the resilience park.

He stated that the park was proposed many years ago and that there were promises from the now Opposition that they would do it.

“They never did. There is only really one Government that is capable of doing things and making them happen. We are standing on a three-storey building which is evidence of us doing things whilst there are those trying to prevent things from happening,” he said.

According to Holness, the resilience park project, which is being managed by Urban Development Corporation, is on target and on budget.

The park will contain a 700m jogging track, tennis and pickleball courts, an indoor centre for netball, badminton, and volleyball, as well as a multipurpose event space, an indoor gym, and a large outdoor concert space. There will also be provision for commercial activities to flourish. Other features are a 75,500-gallon rainwater harvesting system, more than 16,300 plants, a solar-powered system, numerous recycled containers to be utilised as buildings, and 12,600 sq feet of lettable space.

“Last year May I had the great privilege of breaking ground for the Portmore Resilience Park. I feel very privileged today to be able to witness works up to about 50 per cent completion. I expect that by September of this year we should be able to complete the project. It is going to be the pride of parks in the island. We have Emancipation Park in Kingston, we built Harmony Park in Montego Bay, and now we’re building the resilience park,” Holness said.

“The commitment we’ve made is that all parishes in Jamaica will have a parish park. Portmore, which will become the newest parish of Jamaica, this will be its parish park. The name says it all — resilience. Portmore is probably the newest established of the developments in Jamaica in terms of the created landmass and the building of communities. It has done very well and it has now reached the point where it has its own self-sustaining economy and definitely needs its own local administration, and that is what the Government is doing in declaring Portmore a parish,” Holness added.

“We are also putting in place the necessary infrastructure that we have become accustomed to in defining a parish and Portmore will probably have even more. It is likely to probably be the most urbanised parish in Jamaica, and it will necessarily need a very well-developed urban infrastructure… I just toured certain capital road works being done that will improve significantly the traffic flow. It will improve water, broadband, and it will improve sewerage,” he said.

“I saw recently, [Health] Minister [Christopher] Tufton announcing that he is ready to move on land that he has declared for the hospital in Portmore, in Bernard Lodge, and there are other facilities in the works. The people of Portmore can rest assured that they will have all the facilities that they are accustomed to in a parish and even more,” the prime minister said.

The planned park was welcomed by a number of residents on Friday.

“Instead of us having to go to Devon House, we will have our own park,” said one woman who opted not to be named.

“Work will be over here so people can get work. We will have our own thing, especially like how we are becoming our own parish,” she added.

A male resident agreed, arguing that the park will do a great deal for Portmore.

“When you have things like these, your property value automatically gone up,” he said, adding that the walking trail will be one mile long.

“This will be somewhere you can take the kids and you can sit and watch them play. I like the setting because the kids can’t go in the adult bathroom. You have adult bathroom and you have kids’ bathroom. Based on the layout, there will be an indoor centre. My daughter plays tennis and that would be good for me. I can carry her go play tennis and I can watch her,” he said.