NOT SO DEPUTY MAYOR CLARKE

Friday, February 15, 2008: It was with some amusement coupled with consternation that we watched KSAC Deputy Mayor Lee Clarke expound on Tuesday February 12, 2008 on the TVJ newscast ostensibly in response to the press statement by the Trafalgar Council on Friday. Deputy Mayor Clarke patronizingly opined that the Council should abandon any notion of suing state agencies which contravened their rights in the affected areas of the Golden Triangle et. al. He invited the Trafalgar Council to meet with the KSAC and to allow cooler heads to prevail as he indicated that as Chairman of the KSAC Building Committee, he always scrupulously followed the laws of the land in granting approvals for new developments.

First of all, the Trafalgar Council remains steadfast in its intent to represent the interests of the citizens of the affected communities and is undaunted by this patronizing yet unsolicited advice given by Deputy Mayor Clarke. Indeed as outlined in its earlier press statement the Trafalgar Council has as one of its members Councillor Waderoy Clarke Deputy Chairman of the KSAC Building Committee. Secondly the Trafalgar Council has always favoured continued but effective dialogue rather than court action, however after several decades of inaction and gross ineptitude on the part of the state agencies legal action cannot be ruled out. Also it is little troubling that Deputy Mayor Lee Clarke, who in his capacity as Chairman of the KSCA Building Committee, is obviously experiencing some level of disconnect with the issues at hand and indeed has sought to assume responsibility for some breaches that were never laid at the feet of the KSAC while clearly oblivious to those matters in which the KSAC is complicit. Are we therefore to assume from the Deputy Mayor’s statement that the KSAC is now assuming responsibility for the proliferation of massage parlours in the community, the establishment of a few motels / inns in the community, the establishment of several nightclubs in the community among other flagrant breaches? What we do know is that the residents of the Golden Triangle, Trafalgar Park and the residential sections of New Kingston are caught in quite the conundrum with the state actively seeking to commercialise their community with private developers seeking to maintain its residential status.