Montague

OLD BUILDINGS across the island have been singled out for protection under the new building code, which Parliament will soon be asked to approve.

Robert Montague, state minister with responsibility for local government, told stakeholders at a Jamaica Mortgage Bank housing-development seminar held at the Terra Nova Hotel, in St Andrew, yesterday, that very soon they would need permits to tear down existing structures.

"In the mad rush for moderni-sation, we lose so many gems. People don't like how some buil-dings look be-cause it is old and so they just tear it down. Under the new code, persons will have to apply for permission to take down these buildings," Montague said yesterday.

No commitment

Jamaica is currently relying on the 1907 Building Act of the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation and the Caribbean Unified Legal Code.

The proposed new building code has already been submitted to Cabinet and is due to be tabled in Parliament.

Montague, however, refused to give a commitment as to when Parliament could sign off on it.

"Parliament never met yesterday because we had no Opposition," Montague said.

Idle house

An intense political campaign in West Portland has captured the attention of many legislators, leaving the House idle for a second con-secutive week.

Meanwhile, Montague gave a commitment that by the first quarter of the new parliamentary year, the much-touted one-stop shop for development approvals would be up and running.

Montague said that if a developer submits a proposal to the one-stop shop for approval and does not get a response within 90 days, the developers ought to consider their projects approved.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com