MONTEGO BAY, St James — Councillor Kerry Thomas (People’s National Party, Mount Salem Division) last Thursday urged municipal corporations across the country to do more to curb squatting.

“This municipal corporation and municipal corporations in general who are responsible for approving building permits, and so forth, right throughout the island, have a responsibility in administering their duties to ensure that when structures are going up illegally we have a responsibility to stop them early before they reach too far to full construction and then it becomes a big loss for those involved in it and it becomes and a loss for everyone,” Thomas said during the regular monthly council meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation.

He framed his comments against the backdrop of last month’s early-morning demolition of about 20 houses in Cooper’s Pen, Trelawny, the culmination of a long-running legal dispute over privately owned land.

There have been mixed reactions to the Cooper’s Pen incident with some people critical that the occupants’ furniture and other belongings were damaged in the process. Others are sympathetic with the property owner who has been denied use of his land for years as the matter drags on in court. Resulting from the incident, a lawsuit has been filed on behalf of a number of men from the community who say they were detained by the police ahead of the demolition and released without charge afterwards. The Cooper’s Pen demolition has renewed a debate on how to deal with the many squatter communities across the country.

“This is not something that is unique to Cooper’s Pen in Trelawny,” Thomas said during last Thursday’s meeting.

Mayor of Montego Bay, Richard Vernon during Thursday’s regular monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation.

“The truth is, with our responsibility, we will protect some of our unsuspecting citizens and residents who might want to purchase a piece of land from somebody and decide to set up a structure and do it however needed, and then ultimately losing everything,” he said.

“Corporations need to look within each parish that they exist now, look at these areas, you need to prevent any new ones from happening. And at the same time, where they exist I am making a second proposal that municipal corporations take a lead role in the regularisation of informal settlements within the parish of St James and corporations generally across the island,” Thomas said.

He pointed to legislation which, he said, gives the corporations the authority to take on those responsibilities.

“We at the corporation through the Building Act have a right to stop construction,” he noted.

“We have a responsibility up front for buildings so we should have stopped all buildings from going up before it reach that stage; and secondly, in so doing we are protecting our citizens,” Thomas added.

However, Mayor of Montego Bay Richard Vernon called for patience, noting the steps being taken by central government to address the issue.

“In terms of the lead role that the municipal corporation should play where these settlements are concerned, before they happen, the Government is also working on a squatter management policy which the municipal corporation will play a critical role in,” Vernon stated.

“We are just now waiting on the next update on the policy and perhaps that’s what we should be asking for, so we can wrap that up quickly and implement so we can manage the situation,” he said.

The mayor also lamented the plight of individuals who are impacted by forced displacement because they are not within the legal framework governing land ownership.

“It is unfortunate when persons invest their life savings and to have to be relocated; but at the same time there is a rule of law and we must respect it,” Vernon said.