The Editor, Sir:

Your front page story in The Gleaner of June 18, cites the concern of Mr. Jesús Silva, the Spanish Ambassador, that the Hanover Parish Council placed a stop order on the building of the hotel at Point Estate in Lucea because of an industrial dispute. His concern is justified. Surely, there are other agencies of government who could have stepped in to help facilitate mediation. A stop order by the parish council is heavy handed in this situation and will hurt Jamaica's reputation and growth prospects. This is another example of the broken approval process as controlled by the local authorities, with little or no coordination with other government agencies.

Questionable approvals

There are many other situations where questionable approvals are given by local authorities. No consideration appears to be to given to standards or guidelines for specific areas. The 2002 report by a select committee of Parliament, recommendedestablishing building guidelines for various areas and more central control of the approval process, among other recommendations for strengthening local government administration. If reports or committees by themselves could solve our problems, we would be far advanced.

Unfortunately, there seems to be little follow through. Jamaica is a place where 'I do what I please because I need to make money, or this is my plan.' The law/Gover-nment seems to have little control over these activities, hence no uniformity in our building activities. While speeding up the approval process seems to get most attention, even more important is getting the development approval decisions right. When can we hope for improvement?

I am, etc.,

DONALD DUFF

Sunset Avenue

Kingston 8