JLP Portmore councillors get impatient

Threaten to take to the street if minister fails to release money for drain work

BY INGRID BROWN Observer senior reporter browni@jamaicaobserver.com

Friday, February 03, 2012

JAMAICA Labour Party (JLP) councillors in the Portmore Municipality are expected to say by today what action they intend to take to put pressure on Local Government Minister Noel Arscott to lift a stop order on more than $14 million worth of road works in their respective divisions.

The councillors, who met last night to chart a way forward, said they will resort to protest action if that is what it will take to get the green light for the work to begin in the Gregory Park, Independence City and Westchester divisions.

"If it means to get all these residents to come out and have a peaceful protest, if that is what we have to resort to we will, and we know the people will be willing to because they are the ones being affected," Councillor Camille Buchanan (JLP, Gregory Park Division) told the Observer, ahead of last night's meeting.

The Portmore councillors accused Arscott of victimisation for putting a hold on the much-needed funds that were sent to the council for upcoming cleaning and repair of drains.

The councillors have accused the minister of giving instructions to pull the $14 million from work to be done only in the JLP divisions and say this has prevented them from carrying out clean-up activities in the divisions.

"Up to when this issue was raised in the media work was still ongoing in the PNP divisions, with the only affected area being a part of the Edgewater Division because the drain to be repaired runs through a part of that division," Buchanan explained.

The councillors, who believe a political strategy is at work, had issued an ultimatum on the minister to immediately release the funds.

Yesterday, state minister in the Ministry of Local Government Colin Fagan said the minister was awaiting the findings of an audit into operations governing the work before making a decision on how to proceed.

"We have no intention to hold back any programme; our intention is to find out if we are getting value for money and once we are satisfied, then we will move forward," he said.

In a previous report, the minister said he only wrote to Mayor Keith Hinds to request details on the status of road contracts, and asked that the requisite documents be submitted to the ministry before further work is carried out.

But yesterday, Buchanan said the councillors were yet to receive a response despite the councillors having sent a report to the minister outlining their concerns, as well as explaining how much money has been spent so far on the project.

Buchanan told the Observer that a way must be found to get the minister "to stop victimising the residents of these communities".

She insisted that this is tantamount to victimisation of the residents as the initial authorised work involved the cleaning of three problem drains in Gregory Park, Independence City and Westchester divisions and major repairs to a collapsed wall in Westchester.

According to Buchanan, the drains often pose a problem for residents over the years and will continue to do so if they are not speedily addressed ahead of the rainy seasons.

"So we are not asking that they respond to us but more so to the residents of the municipality who will be affected," she said.

Last night, Mayor Hinds said he had no comment on the matter. "I am awaiting the minister's report and I have no comment," Hinds said. "The councillors can do what it is they want to do."

JLP councillors hold four of the seven divisions in the municipal council.

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JLP Portmore councillors get impatient