Gareth Manning, Staff Reporter

SMALL ATTRACTIONS in Trelawny are failing long before they get into business because of impractical and bureaucratic requirements being thrust upon them by state agencies, killing the parish's potential to earn more from the lucrative tourism trade, developers argue.

Concerned developers cried foul during a Gleaner Editors' Forum at Glistening Waters in the parish on Thursday. They argued that many of the start-up requirements of state agencies were unnecessary, time-consuming and took several years to complete.

"There are too many different agencies you have to deal with," said former parliamentarian and businessman Desmond Leaky. Leaky has had problems with the start-up of a project on the Martha Brae River that would introduce kayaking to its already world-famous rafting facilities.

Project on hold

Leaky has been at it for nearly three years now, but has had to put the project on hold many times because of frustration with the application process.

"There are 19 different things you have to submit to 19 different departments or agencies and each step of the way there is a fee and it becomes burdensome," complained Leaky.

"It can easily take you three years just to get one of these things approved," he said.

Executive director of the Southern Trelawny Environmental Agency, Hugh Dixon, added that some of the requirements of the agencies, including some of those required by the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), were impractical.

NEPA checklist

Dixon owns and manages an eco-tourism-type attraction in the Cockpit Country. To operate his tours, however, he has to apply to NEPA and the Tourism Product Development Company for a licence.

"Their checklist could range from what is available in terms of sanitary conveniences, security, what's available in emergency facilities, but what is recommended you put in place ... moves you into areas that are excessive," Dixon stated.

For example, he disclosed, attractions such as his are required to provide certain emergency equipment that is only used by hospitals. In another instance, he is being asked to put sanitary conveniences in areas where they could pose a danger to the environment.

"You start having a conflict as an eco-tourism attraction operator because you say, 'I don't want to put a toilet in the bush because I'm leaving the sewage there'," he says.

Collecting minor details

He added that the application process is also frustrated by the agencies' insistence on collecting minor details that may have been left off the application forms.

"You are usually turned back on something that really shouldn't hold up the process of giving you that permit," he argued.

Dixon said in spite of the painful process, small attractions such as his are not guaranteed the promotion other large developments would receive during Government's marketing of the island abroad.

"So, you are putting out a considerable amount to meet the standards for permits, but there isn't a necessary commensurate return based on you meeting those standards," he said.

gareth.manning@gleanerjm.com