Prince Charles is to replace concrete apartment blocks overrun by marauding gunmen in Kingston, the capital, with traditional lime-washed bungalows surrounded by palm trees.

The Prince’s Foundation, his architectural charity, has drawn up plans to redevelop part of Trenchtown — mentioned in Marley’s hit, No Woman, No Cry — with new homes for 3,000 people. Charles’s officials will announce the scheme in Jamaica this month.

Hank Dittmar, chief executive of the architectural foundation, said construction of the first street could begin in December. It may fund a row of 20 homes, at a cost of £250,000, with the Jamaican government expected to provide an initial £2.5m.

News of the project follows the disclosure that Charles is buying a retreat in Transylvania, home of Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula. He plans to inject life into a Romanian village listed as a world heritage site.

The Jamaican project is the prince’s first big development abroad and follows the construction of a pastiche Georgian village at Poundbury in Dorset.

The Trenchtown development is near Marley’s old home, which has been preserved, with his iron bed and a decrepit tour bus.

Since Marley died in 1981, the area has been devastated by political gang violence, and half the population has left. More than 250 people were murdered in the district last year, which is one of the most unsafe in Jamaica.

“The place has the worst crime rate in Kingston,” said Norah Blake, an estate agent. “I was on my way to prayer one Saturday morning and saw a man shot off his bike. The place looks like a war zone. We are very grateful for the prince getting involved.”

Half the area’s men are unemployed and spend their days playing cards and smoking marijuana.

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