Falmouth Residents Rue Lack of Benefits from Cruise Ship Pier

Three years after the historic town of Falmouth in Jamaica began welcoming cruise passengers, the Trelawny business community as well as residents, are expressing disappointment at the level of economic activity that is being generated from the development of the $7.5- billion Falmouth Cruise Shipping Pier.

"The town is not visitor- friendly. Essentially it has serious problems in relation to the collection of garbage and drainage. In fact, the town of Falmouth was not developed in a manner that would allow it to benefit significantly from the development of the pier," Delroy Christie, the first vice -president of the Trelawny Chamber of Commerce told the Observer West on the weekend.

Dennis Seivwright, a former president of the chamber agreed. He stressed that since the development of the facility, there have been widespread disappointment across the parish of Trelawny.

"Since the development of the pier there is great disappointment. I believe that it should be benefiting Falmouth much, much more," Seivwright stressed.

Like Christie, he argued that major infrastructural development which is critical to support the pier is lacking in the north coast town.

"My vision was to see small businesses in the town of Falmouth really raking in some good US dollars, but instead most of the guests that come off the ships go to other places. This would not have happened if proper infrastructure was put in place before the opening of the pier," he argued.

According to Seivwright, when the pier was being conceptualized, there were plans to restore several historic landmarks in the town. But that, he said, is yet to materialize.

"We talked about restoring some of our historic buildings; we talked about the present parish council building being used as a museum; we talked about a transport center; relocation of the market... all of these are not yet to be realized," Seivwright charged.

He stressed that one of his great disappointments is the absence of a statue of Olympian Usain Bolt –a native of Trelawny- in the town.

"Investors are raring to go to sponsor the erection of that statute because everybody wants to identify with it. And it was not just Usain Bolt's statue we wanted. We wanted to see Veronica Campbell and Michael Frater, as well, boasting Trelawny's pride because of all the parishes in Jamaica, we have the most top-rated athletes."

Leon Jackson, a Trelawny resident, bemoaned that despite the town's rich history, it has not been able to provide enough attractions for the thousands of cruise ship passengers.

"Falmouth has a rich history of association with sugar. At one time there were 80 sugar factories in Trelawny, and at this time we don't have a museum where we can trace the history of the parish's involvement in sugar. This, in my opinion is a disgrace," said an irate Jackson.

"You will have two ships coming into the pier on particular days with 8,000 people and Falmouth does not have enough attractions to host 1,000 of those, so as a result of that most of them go outside of the parish and the people who were looking forward to benefiting from the cruise ship passengers coming, are left to mourn and groan."

But while conceding that Falmouth is yet to maximize the benefits from the multi- billion-dollar pier, Mayor Garth Wilkinson, is urging residents to be patient.

Source: The Jamaica Observer