Other than that political parties are campaigning for general parliamentary elections due this year we are unsure what to make of a squabble regarding Brooks Park in the rapidly growing central highlands town of Mandeville.

During a recent visit Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness reiterated that Government, through the National Housing Trust, intends to construct a park within the “curtilage” of Mandeville and name it based on “national ethos”.

Said Dr Holness: “We are looking at Brooks Park, but if the chamber of commerce or any other stakeholder has any other idea, it is still in the embryonic stage and now is the time to make your views known …”

Since then, Mayor of Mandeville Mr Donovan Mitchell, who is aspiring to represent the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) in Manchester Central, has said that renaming would be to disrespect the memory of the man in honour of whom Brooks Park is named. That’s Mr Stanley Edwin Brooks who became Mandeville’s first mayor in 1961.

From this distance this newspaper sees no need to rename Brooks Park.

What’s needed — as is the case for virtually every other urban centre in Jamaica — is a suitably developed green space for people to relax in sync with nature, as well as indulge in healthy, physical exercise/recreation and competitive sport.

We are told that Brooks Park, located just west of the Mandeville town centre, is 38 acres in size. A few acres have been used for community needs including an infant school and youth centre.

Currently there is also a proposal for the fire station, now inappropriately sited close to the congested centre of Mandeville, to be relocated to Brooks Park.

Even then we believe there would be more than enough space for leisure and sport.

Suggestions that Brooks Park should also embrace a designated entertainment centre are probably misplaced, given proximity to residential neighbourhoods, in the context of night-noise abatement regulations.

Of course, Mandeville is also home to the small but well-appointed Cecil Charlton Park at the town centre — named in honour of a legendary mayor of decades past.

In truth, leisure and recreational parks are by no means Mandeville’s greatest need.

That’s domestic water, a challenge which gets more daunting as Mandeville — now just an hour’s drive from Kingston with the expanding highway project — grows exponentially despite the decline of bauxite/alumina.

The hope is that the ongoing Greater Mandeville Water project, bringing expensively pumped water from the plains of neighbouring St Elizabeth will meet needs. There is also talk that wells in Porus and other communities in south-eastern Manchester — controlled by bauxite/alumina interests — should be utilised.

And, despite creative traffic changes which have helped, congestion remains a headache.

Planned removal of the fire station, planned new court facilities away from the town centre to permanently replace the national heritage site which was seriously damaged by fire in 2019, as well as subsequently rented premises, a proposed transportation centre and a new market, would all help.

So, too, would implementation of a suggestion by chairman of the Manchester Development Committee, Mr Tony Freckleton, for schools close to the town centre to be relocated just outside the town.

What’s certain is that Brooks Park is among the least of the challenges being faced by Mandeville residents right now.