MEMBER of Parliament for St Catherine South Eastern Robert Miller has promised to deliver the green space residents of Portmore, St Catherine, have long-anticipated.

Miller says the stalled Portmore Climate Change Park located at Lot 26, Portmore Town Centre, will be transformed into the Portmore Resilience Park and that ground will be broken for the project later this year.

“It has been too long. The citizens have been waiting for years; rest assured I will get it done,” said Miller as he made his contribution to the State of the Constituency Debate in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

According to Miller, he is aware that the residents of Portmore have been craving green areas and he has been lobbying members of the Portmore City Municipality (PCM) about the cause without success.

“Under my watch, I have started a drive to develop these parks. I have some private interests. It is my intention to engage the Portmore City [Municipality] again with the hope that they would give their approval to develop these green areas,” he said.

The park was originally born out of a 2015 memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the PCM and the German city of Hagen to fund the development which was intended to include the planting of several trees, a running/walking trail, a pond, monuments, wind turbines, an observation tower, areas for small indigenous animals, a public awareness component and other elements.

The development of this 26-acre parcel of land has, however, been mired in controversy for a number of years, with Miller being at the centre of the dispute in recent times over his claim that the PCM spent $160 million on the establishment of the Portmore/Hagen Climate Change Park.

In 2021, Miller had called on the People’s National Party-led municipal body to account for the funds that it was supposed to have spent on establishing the so-called climate change park in Portmore, St Catherine. The PCM denied his claim.

“We have been asking questions to the municipal council as to what has been done to the $160 million that is said to have been spent on the park, which continues to be a dust bowl and nuisance to many. The citizens of St Catherine South Eastern need answers and they need them now,” Miller said.

In its response, the PCM noted that the establishment of the park, which was a partnership between Hagen and the PCM, initially cost $66 million and was later revised to $176 million to complete.

”The park was to be made from natural resources, features a jogging trail, parking area, freshwater pond, administrative buildings, irrigation system, amphitheatre, solar lighting, storm-water drainage system, and tree planting areas,” the PCM said in its statement.

According to the council, it was unable to move forward with the completion of the recreational park due to the ”monumental” cost associated with its completion, adding that the park was at varying stages of completion.

”To date, the PCM has received $25,498,000 from the Government of Jamaica and $14,025,879.31 from Hagen; a total of approximately $39.5 million, and spent J$42 million,” the statement noted.

The Portmore Resilience Park is expected to be developed under the Urban Development Corporation’s (UDC) Urban Spaces Programme.

According to information from the corporation’s website, the property, which is owned by the UDC, is earmarked for development as a community green space and park to accommodate recreational and sporting activities.

“Given the high population density, air quality and high temperatures that exist in the Portmore community, which are exacerbated by the climate change phenomenon, a green relief space would seek to alleviate some of the effects of those conditions,” the UDC said.