Hanover lobbys growth of Lucea Harbour

Claudia Gardner, Hospitality Jamaica Writer:

STAKEHOLDERS IN Hanover have formed a new lobby group which will be approaching Prime Minister P. J. Patterson with a proposal to undertake alternative development of the Lucea harbour.

According to president of the Hanover Chamber of Commerce, Anthony Marks who is leading the group, the decision came against the background of Mr. Patterson's recent announcement that the Port Authority had abandoned plans to develop cruise shipping facilities in Lucea.

Mr. Patterson told stakeholders during the Hanover Development meeting in Negril three weeks ago, that the town would instead benefit from the construction of a 2,000-room hotel, by the Spanish Fiesta Resorts, on the eastern side of the harbour.

"The Fiesta hotel development is to start pretty soon, but we still believe that it is private investment," Mr Marks told Hospitality Jamaica at the inaugural meeting of the group at the Rusea's High School recently. "We believe there is a role which government has to play, and in light of the fact that the cruise ship (pier) has been shelved, there is a need for some other thing to come into its place, whether it is going to be a marina or some sort of facility that will use the natural harbour as its main source, and to ensure that the people of Lucea enjoy some livelihood.

"We are putting together a package ­ a full presentation in which we are trying to engage the Prime Minister in some discussion. We are saying 'you (government) have shelved that (cruise shipping terminal) but we believe that this is also possible'," he added. "So we have worked on a number of ideas, which have been in the making over a long period of time, but we are going to now put forcibly on the table, a proposal which we figure can only make life easier for all of us."

Mr Marks told Hospitality Jamaica that "a number of suggestions have come out, inclusive of really looking at the whole harbour as a source of income". He said among the suggestions was the development of the harbour as a marina.

Among those present at the meeting were Mayor of Lucea and chairman of the Hanover Parish Council, Lester Crooks; Councillor of Lucea, Audley Gilpin and chairman of the Hanover Parish Development Committee, Nerris Hawthorne.