TRELAWNY — People’s National Party Member of Parliament for North Trelawny, Wendell Stewart, has blamed government’s bureaucracy for the delay in the planned relocation of more than 200 residents living in flood-prone areas in the parish.

In January, heavy rains caused widespread flooding and damage to several roads in the parish, as well as to sections of the Granville All-Age School.

After the rains, Stewart told the residents in Zion, Mowfield and a section of a depressed community in Falmouth — called 75 Market Street — that the residents who were flooded out of their homes would be relocated within six months.

But those affected are yet to be relocated and are now fearful that the heavy rains now being experienced in the parish could result in more flooding.

But Stewart, who has appealed to the residents for patience, has pointed finger at the various government departments which he charged are responsible for the slow pace at which the project is progressing.

He said the Ministry of Lands and the housing ministry, which have the responsibility to co-ordinate the project, are not synchronising their efforts to get the project off the ground.

“It is very difficult to get the paper work done,” Stewart told the Observer.

He said however, that he was not daunted by this problem and was confident that the project would come to fruition in the near future.

Under the project, residents in flood-prone areas of Zion, Mowfield and 75 Market Street will be allocated lands for housing in the communities of Hague and sections of Daniel Town in Trelawny. But Stewart said that the necessary infrastructure would be put in place first to ensure the orderly relocation of the families.

He stressed that the lands would not be given free to the families, but sold at an affordable price. At the same time he warned that once the residents were relocated, stringent measures would be put in place to ensure that other people do not settle on the flood-prone lands.

The MP added that he has secured 50 houses from Food for the Poor, which will be made available to needy families under the project.

Meanwhile, $4.5 million is being spent to carry out repairs on the Falmouth to Deeside main road in Trelawny that was also damaged during the January flood rains.

The work involves the building of curb and retaining walls, the patching of roadways and the building of culverts. It is being undertaken by the National Works Agency under the Flood Damage Programme.

Stewart told the Observer that other roads in the parish that were damaged during the January flood rains are also slated to get attention very soon. These include the Salt Marsh to Kent, Rock to Stewart Town, Martha Brae to Duanvale and the Clark’s Town to Sherwood Content main roads.

“The contractors are in place and the work can start anytime now,” he said.