MONTEGO BAY, St James — Several residents of Buck Toe Lane in Salt Spring, St James, have embraced efforts to have the name changed, saying the nomenclature no longer reflects the state of the road.

“Wi stop buck wi toe now because the roadway is well done; so we can change it, no more Buck Toe Lane,” Ann Marie Douglas laughingly told the Jamaica Observer during a visit to the community.

During last Thursday’s regular monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation, Councillor Gregory Harris (Jamaica Labour Party, Salt Spring Division) moved a resolution to rename the street Parkinson Drive, in honour of the late former councillor and Labourite, Trevor Parkinson. There was unanimous bipartisan support for the resolution, and it has also been well received by Douglas and other residents.

“It’s alright to change it in honour of Mr Trevor Parkinson. I don’t see anything wrong with that. He worked hard for the community before he died so he deserves it,” she remarked.

She said rehabilitation of the road is a sign of how much the community has grown.

“This renaming now match the progress; it is alright, that man fight for it for years,” she said of Parkinson.

Fellow resident and elder at Flower Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church, Adrian Green also lauded the move. He, too, told the Observer that Parkinson made his mark on the community, even though the road was fixed several years after he died.

“I welcome any changes. The road is ‘travelable’ — we can access any lane to your house right at your door ,and it has been a result of Mr Parkinson’s effort,” he insisted.

“He didn’t get to fulfil the job but I think he did an excellent job in the community,” Green added.

Another resident, who gave his name as Liston, said he too was pleased about the move to rename the road as well as the improvements which have made the original name outdated.

“The place used to have a whole heap of big stones, and people used to buck off them toe. Nobody not bucking off them toe again. It fixed ya now and the road nice; nobody don’t have any problems now,” he declared.

Liston said the new road, laid last year, has elicited the envy of some outsiders.

“It’s a real community, man, because even some people that come from a more upscale place than here so, when them see the road, they surprised,” he told the Observer.

Councillor Harris, who moved the resolution for the change, is of the view that Parkinson has earned the recognition.

“I believe that it would be fitting and proper to rename Buck Toe Lane to Parkinson Drive in honour of him, so that persons coming on will know exactly who Trevor Parkinson was and his legacy will continue for years to come,” Harris told the Observer.

“It’s good that you can recognise somebody based on the long-standing service that he would have given to public service,” he added.

Harris explained it was a privilege for him to have a hand in honouring Parkinson, to whom he owes a great deal.

“I remember visiting him and telling him of my interest [in representing the division]. He said that he would get back to me two weeks after he did a canvas. One week later he told me I had his blessing and the blessing of the community,” Harris said.

He said Parkinson was once a household name in Salt Spring, serving all who sought him out in his capacity as a justice of the peace, and his presence was felt as a councillor.

“At the time, councillor didn’t get pay, just a stipend for travelling and so. But Trevor Parkinson made himself visible; he was very accessible to the residents of the Salt Spring Division,” Harris added with admiration.

Parkinson served the division from 1981 to 1986, and again from 2003 to 2012. He died on New Year’s Eve 2018.

Ann Marie Douglas, in her Buck Toe Lane community, says she welcomes the proposed name change. 

Councillor Gregory Harris (Jamaica Labour Party, Salt Spring Division) who moved a resolution to change the name of Buck Toe Lane to Parkinson Drive.