St. James PC defers telecommunication giant’s application to build cell tower in West Green
BY MARK CUMMINGS Observer West senior reporter cummingsm@jamaicaobserver.com
MONTEGO BAY, St James - The St James Parish Council’s Physical Planning Committee has deferred Digicel’s application for permission to erect a 45-metre cellular tower in the middle-class community of West Green.
“The application went to the meeting (physical planning) last week and it was deferred to next month’s meeting because of some outstanding matters,” Charles Sinclair, the council’s chairman told the Observer West on Tuesday.
“… as such no approval has been given for Digicel’s application,” added Sinclair, who is also mayor of Montego Bay.
The telecommunications company hopes to construct the tower later this year, but it needs the approval of several state entities including the St James Parish Council and the National Environmental Planning Agency (NEPA) as a pre-requsite.
Last month Digicel, which had already received the nod of approval for the construction of the site from NEPA, called a meeting - in keeping with the parish council’s approval process-with members of the West Green Citizens Association to outline its plans.
However at that stormy meeting, which took place on September 6 at the Cannon Muffler Centre in the community, some 100 residents made it clear that they did not want the tower in their community for health reasons.
Subsequently, two weeks ago the association, through its president, Vilma Clarke, delivered a petition signed by some 270 community members to the Parish Council’s Secretary Manager, Winston Palmer as well as NEPA.
The petition, which was accompanied by a cover letter as well as a list of the first 76 residents who attended the September 6, meeting, urged the local authority not to approve Digicel’s application.
“We did not get to collect the signatures of everyone who came to the meeting because some came in late and the focus had changed.. there were no microphones, and people were complaining at times that they could not hear what the people from Digicel were saying,” Clarke told the Observer West.
On Tuesday, Sinclair told the Observer West that the physical planning committee has since written to NEPA advising the agency of the community’s stance against the construction of the tower.
Sinclair added that the committee is also awaiting the minutes of last month’s meeting between Digicel and the West Green Citizens Association.
But Clarke told the Observer West that her association was not able to take minutes at the meeting as it was plagued by audio problems.
“We couldn’t hear what was being said and there wasn’t much to record given the shouting. In any case nobody has asked me for any minutes and it wasn’t our meeting, we were called by Digicel so we did not come with equipment to take that sort of record,” she said.
In the meantime the communication process seems to have gone awry as Clarke has received a letter from Digicel referring to the community’s desire to have sidewalks repaired as part of the condition for allowing the tower in.
According to Clarke, the letter which was written under the signature of Digicel’s head of facilities, Donovan Betancourt, will be taken to the Association’s regular monthly meeting which is scheduled for October 22 at the Catherine Primary School.
“Nobody spoke to me about any sidewalks. I don’t know who he (Betancourt) spoke to. I am still waiting to hear from the St James Parish Council and NEPA. In the meantime it is business as usual for us. I will put the letter to the monthly meeting and see what the membership has to say about it and we will follow due process,” she said.
In the meantime, Digicel’s CEO, Mark Linehan says his company will work with the community to find an amicable solution. “Digicel works hand in hand with communities across Jamaica in everything we do and we are always guided by our customers. We work hard in ensuring that all our customers have access to the best network at all times by way of coverage and capacity. Our aim here is to ensure that the West Green community understands the benefits that enhanced communications will bring. As such - as in all things that we do - we will work with the West Green community to understand and alleviate their concerns and to ensure that it benefits from fantastic mobile services and is a part of the broadband revolution coming its way when we launch our WiMax/4G technology, Digicel Broadband next year,” he said.
