Gareth Manning, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

Milton Brown, Mayor of May Pen. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

Bureaucratic procedures in Central Government are hampering the pace of development in parishes across the island, mayors and other local stakeholders charge. They are calling on Government to cut away the red tape involved in acquiring approval for projects and empower the parish councils to administer developments in their jurisdictions.

The local government officials say currently parish councils are underfunded and lack the institutional capacity to competently address developmental issues created by large-scale investments. The councils also lack the necessary expertise to inform the planning and approval process, municipal officials underscore, making them absolutely powerless in approving major projects.

Speaking recently at a Gleaner Editors' Forum, Milton Brown, chairman of the Association of Local Government Authorities (ALGA) and Mayor of May Pen, said the problems can be quickly solved if Central Government speeds up the enactment of a building code to guide parish councils. This, he said, would eliminate having to send applications to several different agencies and ministries before approval can be granted. A first draft of the code is expected by early next year.

More technical staff

He is also resisting efforts by the ministry to centralise technical experts and is calling on the Ministry of Local Government to fit parish councils with more technical staff so approvals can be granted quicker.

"In my parish (Clarendon) the teenage mothers' home is putting up a building and they said to the council, 'We are asking you to waive the fees we would normally pay', (and) we take a decision that we are going to waive the fees, (I am told) I have to send (the application for waiver) to the Minister of Local Government!" Mayor Brown said.