Above: Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour Rudolph Pratt opening the Bain Grants Town Urban Renewal Centre in Nassau in March 2010. (BIS Photo/Raymond Bethel)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

A controversy has arisen in the Bahamas over claims by the Opposition Progressive Liberal Party that the ruling Free National Movement failed to take control of crime and fund an urban renewal programme the PLP says it pioneered.

In a press release issued by the PLP Thursday, the PLP said Urban Renewal Centres in the country had “not been a priority” for the FNM, claiming Urban Renewal Centres had been “under-funded or closed altogether under the current government.”

In response, the government sent out a release saying that of eight Urban Renewal Centres operational when the PLP was in power, none had been closed by the government, including six that continued operating from the same locations as they had under the PLP government of Perry Christie.

The government released information on a series of centres, both in New Providence and Grand Bahama that it said were continuing to operate.

Crime has been a major issue on the government’s agenda of late in the Bahamas, headlined by several new initiatives, including the announcement of firearms marking and the installation of CCTV cameras.

Earlier this month, the Government announced it would be adding to the corps of Police Reservists in the Royal Bahamas Police Force.