In the wake of the House of Representatives’ approval of a motion to name Portmore Jamaica’s 15th parish, Portmore Mayor Leon Thomas has declared that the Government should be looking to establish long sought, crucial infrastructure to bring adequate services to the residents of the most populous community in the English-speaking Caribbean.

Thomas, in a release today, also argued that the final decision on the change in status should also be left to the residents of Portmore who have a host of priority needs for their community.

Pointing to some of the deficiencies in the municipality of more than 184,000 residents, Thomas noted that there was still no public hospital, no public morgue, no cemetery, no designated market, no poor relief office, no parish court, no defined boundaries, a poor road network and no infirmary.

“Portmore residents depend on Spanish Town and Kingston & St Andrew for the above crucial services,” said the mayor, who represents the Opposition People’s National Party.

“Portmore’s fire station is woefully inadequate and cannot serve the existing communities, along with the rapid commercial and residential developments.”

According to Thomas, he was not in principle opposed to making Portmore the 15th parish as it “is certainly deserving of parish status”, but before the Government rushes through the process, the question of whether the municipality should be a parish should be “put to the residents in a referendum and not a hasty political decision”.

The approval of the motion in the Lower House, on February 1, followed debate on the report of a joint select committee (JSC) of Parliament that had been appointed to consider the matter.

It would be the first time since 1867 that a new parish is being created in the island.

Dr Andrew Wheatley, the governing Jamaica Labour Party’s member of parliament for St Catherine South Central, who chaired the JSC, had acknowledged during the debate on the motion that there was need for an upgrade of the infrastructure. He said the new parish would have its own hospital and see major upgrading of roads.

The report recommended that the parish capital be named Portmore, much as in the case of Kingston where the parish capital is also named Kingston.