



THE Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is yet to take a decision on the proposal for a trans-shipment port on Goat Islands, but its independent thinking member of Parliament for South West St Catherine, Everald Warmington, has given it his full approval.



“I am in full support of it, and I am not going to sit by and allow any environmentalist to block any progress in the area,” Warmington told the Jamaica Observer yesterday, when asked for his comment on the controversial issue.



“When they are eating their grilled steak and lobster and drinking chardonnay wine, our people are without a job and can’t buy food. I would urge them to leave their ivory tower and come down and see the condition of the people,” Warmington said.



“I am prepared to go to Parliament tomorrow to have any restriction on the development lifted; so they can all go to hell,” he added. However, JLP General Secretary Dr Horace Chang said that the party welcomed investments of the nature, but could not take a position on the issue without more information.



“We want to see the study which formed the basis on which they decided that this was the best location for the trans-shipment port. Then, we want to know how it would proceed and what protections would be included for the people of Jamaica,” Dr Chang told the Observer.



He said that, personally, he felt that a trans-shipment port utilising Kingston Harbour and extending into St Catherine would be more appropriate, as it would facilitate the development of the eastern coastal parishes, and could be extended into the Caymanas area and as far as Old Harbour.



Dr Chang said that there was also the danger of the Chinese developing Goat Islands “as an enclave”, over which the Jamaican Government would have little control. However, he said that the information made available by the Government’s spokesmen so far was not enough for the JLP to take an informed decision.



Minister of Land, Water, Environment, and climate change Robert Pickersgill revealed, during a visit to China last week, said that the Goat Islands were “now under very serious consideration” to facilitate a trans shipment port financed by the Chinese.



This followed meetings in Beijing, involving Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, Jamaican Cabinet ministers, public servants, senior Chinese leaders, and representatives of China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC).



China Harbour is the main contractor on the Chinafinanced Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme and is expected to also be the main contractor on the successor Major Infrastructure Development Programme, as well as the trans-shipment port.



Simpson Miller and her team ended a five-day visit to China on Saturday.





The announcement of plans to erect the trans-shipment port on Goat Islands has triggered widespread rejection of the idea, led by the country’s main environmental NGOs. The NGOs point out that the area is part of the Portland Bight Protected Area, which is the subject of United Nations wetlands protection conventions.



Yesterday, Warmington told the Observer that the entire Goat Islands were useless and served no purpose at the moment.



“There are no indigenous species on Goat Islands. The dogs and the cats have made use of the conies and the iguanas that used to be there. It is bare land, rock stone and trees,” Warmington said.



“Two individuals were raising goats there up to recently, and one gave up and left, recently. There is nothing there to protect,” Warmington argued.