Residents of Parottee, St Elizabeth, are divided over a Government proposal to relocate some households from the hurricane-ravaged fishing community.

Some welcome the move as a necessary response to worsening coastal damage, while others insist they will never leave the sea that sustains them. The debate follows comments by Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness during the National Housing Trust’s handover of 27 serviced lots in Malvern, also in the parish. He indicated that Parottee could be among the communities to benefit from relocation initiatives and container housing solutions following the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa last October.

Among those supporting the possibility of relocation is one of the fisherfolk, Mary Linton.