MONTEGO BAY, St James — Shadow minister for tourism, Senator Janice Allen is calling for more of the country’s streets to be renamed, part of a wider push to remove remnants of Jamaica’s colonial past.

She wants to see roads in St James renamed in honour of parish residents who have made significant contributions to the city of Montego Bay and the parish as a whole.

Her call came during a ceremony to mark the renaming of Pitfour Drive in honour of her late father Glover Allen, former two-time councillor for the Granville Division.

“It is important, as we remove the last vestiges of the monarchy, that we acknowledge our own Jamaicans and name our streets and lanes after them. I wish and hope, Mr Mayor [Councillor Leeroy Williams]… that we could consider a street like King Street to be renamed for George Thomas,” suggested Allen.

A prominent attorney in St James, Thomas was president of the Cornwall Bar Association at the time of his death during a motor vehicle collision in 2015. Allen said her father, like her a member of the People’s National Party, would have welcomed the move to have Thomas so honoured, even though they had different political leanings.

“George Thomas was a Montego Bay man and we must recognise Montego Bay people for what Montego Bay people do for Montego Bay,” she urged.

With the renaming of the road in Glover Allen’s memory, residents were reminded of his contribution to the Granville Division when he served as councillor from 1974-1981, and his role as an activist for the community. He died in 2021, and that same year the current councillor, Michael Troupe, moved a resolution at a meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation to rename the road in his honour.

During Thursday’s ceremony Troupe lauded Allen for the role he played in the paving of roads in the division during his tenure, building the first day-care centre in Montego Bay, and establishing the Nyabinghi community in the area, among other accomplishments.

Troupe, who supported Senator Allen’s call for more roads to be named after Jamaicans, suggested that even more could be done to honour those who have made an impact.

“Several roads within the city have been renamed in this regard over the years — I believe it’s a positive thing to do. To go a bit further, Mayor, maybe it’s time to place a storybook underneath their names because a lot of the roads that have been renamed [in honour] of persons that have made contributions, generations to come [should] read that story about their contributions to the parish of St James,” he proposed.

The push to rename streets is in line with wider calls for Jamaica to remove The King as Jamaica’s head of State and replace the monarchy with a republican form of government. During a visit by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in March, part of the late Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee celebrations, Prime Minister Andrew Holness made it clear that Jamaica intends to ditch the monarchy.