A few visitors at Emancipation Park, New Kingston, which reopened to the public yesterday, after being closed for a week. - Norman Grindley /Staff Photographer EMANCIPATION PARK, New Kingston, which was closed last week because of unruly crowd behaviour, was reopened yesterday amid plans to implement new rules, including tighter security and limiting to 7,000, the number of people having access to it at one time.
According to officials at the National Housing Trust, which is responsible for maintaining the park, there should be increased police presence and additional security, garbage receptacles, and efforts to stamp out unauthorised vending near the park. Only about 7,000 people will be allowed inside the park at any one time.
This was confirmed yesterday by Donald Moore, a member of the management committee responsible for Emancipation Park.
On December 26, the NHT ordered the popular new park closed until after the holiday rush.
Mr. Moore said on December 27 that the park's management would use the period of closure to evaluate and review security measures.
He explained then that access to the park would be restricted for the rest of the holiday to guarantee the safety of hundreds of park visitors and because persons had been misusing park property and even stealing light fixtures, benches and plants.
Persons also used fire crackers in the park, went into the reflecting pools or threw bottles into them and stood on the toilets in the bathrooms.
Mr. Moore said yesterday that a decision was made to release the persons who had been caught last week vandalising the property, among them a woman with four chairs in her car trunk, because there had been no police presence at the time and security officials were needed to shepherd thousands of park visitors out of the park so it could be closed.
