Communication Consultant Vando Palmer expressed concern about the dependency of Manchester on the bauxite deposit, which is a non-renewable asset that could be depleted in 30 years. Vando Palmer the People's National Party's (PNP) candidate for central Manchester in the next general election addressed members of the Rotary Club of Mandeville on Tuesday April 17th.
In his address Palmer blasted the Bauxite sector for the environmental damage it has done to the environment in the region calling the mining companies the "destroyer of the environment". He expressed no less distaste for the poor and ineffective manner in which the Bauxite Institute, the entity that should be serving as a protector oversight body has played its role. Mr. Palmer said the Bauxite Institute should be asking where do we go after bauxite production comes to an end in the next fifteen to twenty years.
Like his opponent Mrs. Sally Porteous of the JLP, he too raised concerns about the sustained water problems that have found what one Rotarian termed "permanency" in Mandeville. In his over forty minutes speech Palmer presented a long list of ills he will be seeking to correct if elected. On the list were the reconstruction of the eighty-year-old Mandeville Market, now a heaven for drug dealers and pickpockets, upgrading the equipment at the Mandeville Hospital to include dialysis and scat scan machines.
Like a football player moving from one end of the field to the other Palmer also said he would remove the control of Brooks Park from the hands of the Manchester Parish Council so the it can be properly developed and managed. Palmer at know time said where the money would come from to pay for his proposal although it was pointed out to him by Rotarian, Dr. Olajide Adekeye that he was proposing to correct the ills that are currently being maintained under his (Palmer) party the PNP.
