Seven PNP Mayors were never consulted on government beach access plan

Claim JIS Headline Is False

The seven Mayors of the People’s National Party (PNP) wish to state categorically that they were not consulted on the Government’s beach access plan, do not support it, and reject the misleading impression created by a Jamaica Information Service report published today under the headline “Mayors support Gov’t beach access plan.”

The story, sourced entirely from two JLP Mayors, does not represent the majority of Jamaica’s elected mayors. It is a selective, government-funded narrative dressed up as a national consensus. The Jamaican public, at home and in the diaspora, deserves better.

The following PNP Mayors: Andrew Swaby (Kingston and St. Andrew), Norman Scott (St. Catherine), Donovan Mitchell (Manchester), Danree Delancy (Westmoreland), Sheridan Samuels (Hanover), Fitzroy Wilson (St. Mary) and Leon Thomas (Portmore) were given no opportunity to review, discuss or respond to any beach access proposals before this story was published. Their voices, and the communities they represent, were entirely absent.

Jamaicans understand what is at stake. Unregulated coastal development, the erosion of public beach access, and the prioritisation of private and tourist interests over ordinary citizens are matters of direct consequence for working families and communities island-wide.

We will not allow Government propaganda to manufacture a false consensus. We stand firmly for genuine, transparent and inclusive consultation on all matters affecting Jamaica’s coastline and its people.