Cooper’s Pen pledge

COOPER’S PEN, Trelawny — Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has given a commitment to “personally oversee” the relocation of residents of Cooper’s Pen whose houses were demolished during a dispute over privately owned land, saying he may have to invoke emergency powers to get the process started by December.

Residents will be provided with a relocation grant to replace belongings damaged during the eviction, but they will have to pay for the land and utilities once they are resettled. Two sites within Trelawny are being contemplated for the subdivision which will house them.

Holness — who on Friday toured the community alongside Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, Trelawny Northern Member of Parliament Tova Hamilton, and state minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Abka Fitz-Henley — said his intention is to move eligible residents into a properly planned community instead of shifting them from one informal settlement to another.