Promise made and promise broken, as Magistrates Court remains at Knuckleblock after deadline passes

Promise after promise by the Gaston Browne Administration to
remove the St. John’s Magistrates’ Court from the Knuckle Block
Community Centre and hand over the building to the Grays/Green
community has been broken.
 
The court was expected to occupy that space only for a short time;
but it has been over four years and the community is yet to make
use of the centre.
 
Last year, Minister of Works Maria Browne advised the Lower
House that the court’s High Street building would be completed by
the end of September and ready for occupancy in October 2023.
 
However, that never happened; and, earlier this year, another
timeline was given for the court to return to its original home and

vacate the Knuckle Block Community Centre within weeks. This has
not materialized, either.
 
MP Richard Lewis, the St. John’s Rural West representative, says the
vision of former Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer was that the
centre would be a means to get loitering young men off the streets
and allow them to be engaged in productive activities provided by
the community centre.

In the meantime, Lewis says that Rural West residents plan to
continue pushing the authorities to hand over the centre and take
the court back to its original site.

St. John’s Rural West MP Richard Lewis.