Dr Dayton Campbell, General Secretary of the People’s National Party (PNP), has promised the residents of Westmoreland Eastern a new fire station, which was promised years ago, should his party be voted into power at the end of the upcoming general election.

Campbell made this promise during a political meeting at Independence Park in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, on Saturday.

He outlined the reality that the Westmoreland Eastern Consituency lacked a much-needed fire station, especially given the hilly terrain to extinguish fires and to assist fire victims.

“Can you imagine that if there’s a fire, you can’t get one fire truck to come from Savanna-la-Mar… You have no fire truck in Darliston. You have no fire truck in Leamington, and you have no fire truck in the Whitehouse Division. Under the next PNP government, there must be a fire station in the constituency of Eastern Westmoreland. Time has come now for us to take people’s lives and safety seriously!” Campbell said during his address.

Campbell’s new promise comes years after the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation (WMC) proposed the establishment of a fire substation in Bethel Town, which is a key farming and residential community in the eastern section of the parish.

At the time of that announcement in the past, WMC contemplated creating a fire station that would share space with the Bethel Town Police Station. It was subsequently decided that the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) would erect the fire station on government-owned lands elsewhere in the area.

However, the project did not come to fruition, given budgetary constraints and a lack of capital support from central government.

At the last general election on September 3, 2020, the governing Jamaica Labour Party swept the parish of Westmoreland, which was long considered ‘safe PNP territory’, with a total of 49 seats nationally to form the Government in the 63-member Parliament.

At the same party meeting, PNP Vice-President Ian Hayles noted that it was critical for the party to reclaim all three seats in the parish of Westmoreland if party President Mark Golding is to become the next prime minister.

“In the last election, we lost all three seats in Westmoreland, but we are saying to you tonight: no more surprises. It is time to deliver Westmoreland back to the People’s National Party,” said Hayles.

He added that Golding is the right man to lead Jamaica, and that he needs the support of Westmoreland to get that opportunity. “Mark Golding said to you, ‘Give me Eastern Westmoreland, give me Central Westmoreland, and give me Western Westmoreland’ and he will deliver for the people of this parish. And I say to you tonight, let us deliver them all to him,” he said.

In the upcoming elections, which is expected in a matter of weeks, the JLP’s George Wright will again go against the PNP’s Dwayne Vaz, whom he defeated handily in Westmoreland Central.

In Westmoreland Western, where the JLP’s Morland Wilson upstaged the PNP’s Dr Wykeham McNeill in 2020, Dr Garfield James, the JLP’s new standard-bearer, will face off with Hayles.

In Westmoreland Eastern, Daniel Lawrence, who defeated Luther Buchanan in the 2020 election, will face a new challenge in PNP General Secretary Dr Dayton Campbell.