MONTEGO BAY, St James - The St James Parish Council is upset about the Ministry of Local Government's instructions not to spend any more of the $6.4 million allocated from the Tourism Enhancement fund (TEF) to clean the messy North Gully in Montego Bay.

"There seems to be a concerted effort by central government to undermine our efforts," the city's mayor, Councilor Noel Donaldson said at the regular monthly meeting of the council on Thursday.

People's National Party (PNP) councilor for the Spring Mount division, Donald Colomathi, also expressed disappointment with the ministry's decision.

"I believe that the decision was not properly thought out and I believe that it is pre-mature because it seems that there was no collaboration between the various bodies in arriving at the decision," Colomathi said.

Gerard Mitchell, PNP councilor for the Mount Salem division, described the decision as embarrassing, pointing out that the local body would always be put in "embarrassing situations" unless the council seeks to ensure that the local government reform process becomes a reality.

Following vigorous representation from the council earlier this year, the local authority was then allocated $9.3 million from the TEF to assist in the beautification of Montego Bay.
At that time, Ian Reid, the council's secretary/manager said the bulk of the funds would be used to clean the gully.

Last month, the council expended $1.6 million of the funds to clean the section of the gully, leading from the Byron Leslie Market to the mouth of the sea, and had started to finalise plans to have other sections cleaned.

But addressing the regular monthly meeting of the council of Thursday, Reid, said the local body has been advised not to spend any more of the funds on the gully because the National Works Agency (NWA) had been mandated to have it cleaned.

Yesterday, Local Government Minister Dean Peart told the Observer that the NWA, which has responsibility to clean the gully, would commence work on the waterway shortly.

"It is the National Works Agency's responsibility to clean the gully and they have agreed to clean it so it is pointless for the parish council to carry out the work," Peart said
In the meantime, the council says it would be seeking an early meeting with Peart to discuss the issue surrounding the cleaning of the gully and other issues pertaining to the city.

"Beyond that we want to communicate to the minister (Peart) our concern about the fact that he has intervened to prevent any further disbursement of funds from the TEF to clean the North Gully, while at the same time leaving the city of Montego Bay exposed to the potential for flooding," Donaldson said.

The deplorable state of the North Gully has been a source of concern for quite sometime.

Last year, the gully overflowed its banks on at least three occasions, spilling tones of garbage on the city's main thoroughfares and flooded several businessplaces.

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