A Reader Looks Beyond Ian Bell in the IC Report and Fingers the Council
ST ANN’S BAY, St Ann; Oct 6,2026
By Johan Wilson
(In a letter to the Editor of the North Coast Times)
Editor, I don’t know what kind of Council is that they are running in St Ann. I refer to your report on the IC Investigation.
You mean to tell me that they have this big Commercial Services Committee of almost all the Councillors and several civilian council officers, and they had three meetings, and not once did the chairman of the committee ask Councillor Ian Bell to leave the meeting while his wife’s application was being discussed. Remember, the members of the committee get paid to attend the meetings.
(Councillor Ian Bell)
And even after it [the application] by Mrs Shiryl Bell was approved, you mean to say that nobody saw the need to get her to submit a building plan to set up this container in the Bus Park. Where is the Engineering (Road and Works) and Planning Department? And, by the way, the North Coast Times report on the fiasco at the Council and its bus park did not state that all the other shops were 10×6 and this one for the Bells was a 40ft container! REPRIMAND FOR IAN BELL OVER CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Then for three years, the St Ann Municipal
(St Ann Municipal Corporation in monthly meeting earlier this year with Chairman Mayor Michael Belnavis, at centre, CEO Jennifer Brown Cunningham, left and the head of the Engineering Department)
Corporation Council did not make any attempt to collect a penny for rent from the gaming lounge it conspired to breach all Council procedures and rules. Not once did the collector go and ask for the rent or lease money; why? Not once did the Commercial Service Manager ask why the largest shop was not paying.
(Former Mayor of St Ann’s Bay Sydney Stewart chairing a General Council meeting, at right is head of the Engineering or Road and Works Department)
It’s not Mr Bell who should be reprimanded (what is a “reprimand” in these circumstances anyway?) But the whole council of officers and Council should be booted out.
What do they do for work?
