WESTERN BUREAU: Rosalee Gage-Grey, the chief executive officer of the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA), says the welfare of children in state care is improving with a sharp decline in incidents of abuse. “We have a critical-...
WESTERN BUREAU: Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett says sweeping changes are coming to bring an end to the vexed issue of seasonal and contractual work arrangements in the tourism sector, as the Government moves to professionalise the industry and...
WESTERN BUREAU: With close to 100 requests per month and mounting environmental concerns, the Westmoreland Public Health Services is moving to drive the final nail in the coffin of backyard burials in several communities. Steve Morris, chief public...
WESTERN BUREAU: The Westmoreland Municipal Corporation has declared a 47-day amnesty to allow persons building residential homes without the relevant permits to seek approval without penalties. The amnesty period of April 15 to May 31 was declared...
WESTERN BUREAU: Westmoreland is suffering from a major brain drain as increasing numbers of highly trained and qualified workers are leaving the parish to live overseas or migrate to other regions of Jamaica, says a leading business lobbyist. Moses...
Western Bureau: Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett says the St James Parish Court and the St James Parish Library will be relocated from the city centre of Montego Bay to Lower Bevin Avenue, where a one-stop facility to provide government services...
WESTERN BUREAU: In a not-so-diplomatic quip seemingly made in jest on Monday, Chinese Ambassador Tian Qi questioned the presence of a photograph of Ruel Reid, the embattled former education minister, hanging in the boardroom of the Montego Bay...
WESTERN BUREAU: Superintendent Vernon Ellis, commanding officer for St James, has moved to assure members of the local Chinese business community in the western parish that the security forces are working to ensure that the commercial environment...
WESTERN BUREAU: The Montego Bay business community is appealing to the Government and the leadership of the security forces to move swiftly to address the high levels of lawlessness in St James. “The chamber must once again appeal to the Government...
WESTERN BUREAU: Montego Bay Mayor Homer Davis says that millions of international visitors will now be able to recognise the name Jimmy Cliff with the renaming of Gloucester Avenue in Montego Bay to the Jimmy Cliff Boulevard, in honour of reggae...
WESTERN BUREAU: A rise in crime in Westmoreland is being blamed on an inadequate deployment of police and soldiers. Dr Wykeham McNeill, member of parliament for Western Westmoreland, has called for the ramping up of boots on the ground to drive...
WESTERN BUREAU: Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has said that restoration work on the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) building in Montego Bay, St James, was progressing well and that the J$3.5 billion work to fully restore the facility was...
WESTERN BUREAU: Diane Edwards, president of Jamaica Promotions (JAMPRO), says that while the country is doing everything to equip its human capital with skills for the job market, global companies like Google are employing critical thinkers over...
WESTERN BUREAU: The University of Technology and the Northern Caribbean University (NCU) were both presented with accreditation credentials for the administrative year spanning April 1, 2018, to March 31, 2019, at the just-concluded University...
WESTERN BUREAU: Dr Phylicia Marshall, assistant chief education officer in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, says the quality assurance services offered by tertiary institutions should not be watered down with a growing demand for...
WESTERN BUREAU: Special-needs educator and trustee at the Jamaica Teachers’ Association Dr Polly Bowes-Howell is calling for more male teachers to be placed in the early childhood sector as gifted boys are increasingly becoming underachievers. That...
WESTERN BUREAU: The police unit established to rein in farm theft will have to be overhauled because of its failure to put a dent in praedial larceny, Agriculture Minister Audley Shaw said. Shaw lamented the state of penury in which hard-working...
WESTERN BUREAU: Transport Minister Robert Montague has indicated that two major commercial airlines have expressed an interest in operating domestic flights in and out of the Negril Aerodrome in Westmoreland. “We are moving to do some work on the...
WESTERN BUREAU: Business stakeholders have welcomed plans to establish a one-stop facility in Montego Bay to handle government-related services. In an interview with The Gleaner following the announcement by Prime Minister Andrew Holness last...
WESTERN BUREAU: While the Holness administration is pointing to the Opposition’s vote against extending the now-defunct states of public emergency (SOEs) last December as the reason for rising levels of crime in parts of the country, the prime...
WESTERN BUREAU: Ganja investor Balram Vaswani is positioning a multimillion-dollar ganja enterprise in the resort town of Falmouth to tap into tourism interest in Jamaica’s embryonic medicinal marijuana market. Kaya Herb House, a $33-million...
WESTERN BUREAU: Dr Peter Phillips has assembled what he dubs a high-profile team of prospective candidates to launch a political assault on St James after a blistering defeat in the 2016 general election that left the party clinging to only one...
WESTERN BUREAU: Gary Howell, managing director of the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ), is pleading with the residents of Norwood, St James, to complete outstanding payments for their lands so that they can collect their titles. “We have been...
WESTERN BUREAU:Montego Bay's mayor Councillor Homer Davis, who is also the chairman of the St James Municipal Corporation, says he is disappointed that instead of immediate action, styrofoam is being given a much longer time to continue to destroy...
WESTERN BUREAU:Asif Ahmad, the British high commissioner to Jamaica, has said farmers could produce more if they were being paid on time by the hotels and restaurants that buy their goods."I reminded the private sector that they, too, have to change...
