THE St Catherine Parish Council last week received a tongue-lashing from that parish’s business community who described the local government as inept and redundant.

Michael Morris, the parish council’s secretary manager, who gave the guest address for his chairman, Mayor Owen Stephenson, at the St Catherine Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s monthly meeting last Wednesday, was forced to absorb the caustic criticisms of the business persons who demanded better quality service from the council.

“Obviously you at the council do not take the business of the people seriously. You seem to be taking a laissez faire attitude towards the people’s business,” said one angry member of the chamber.

“As far as we are concerned, the council is redundant, useless. As a matter of fact, it is obvious that by the council’s inefficiency and lack of transparency, one gets the impression that it has neither mandate nor sense of purpose,” the member said.

The anger directed at the council was sparked by Morris’ inability, after several attempts, to satisfy the business persons that the council was working at addressing Spanish Town’s run-down infrastructure.

The business persons complained of irregular garbage collection, deplorable roads, absence of traffic lights at certain intersections, clogged drains and illegal street vending which, they charged, continues to wreak havoc on the environment.

The chamber members sharply criticised the council for what they said was its unsatisfactory management of the affairs of the parish and especially the capital, Spanish Town.

Morris was told by the chamber that traffic lights should be installed at the intersections of Jobs Lane and Brunswick Avenue, Bourkes Road and Barrett Street, Bourkes Road and Young Street and Greendale and Beacon Hill main roads.

A female member of the chamber, who runs a restaurant on Bourkes Road, complained that recently she had to contract workmen to clean a drain in the vicinity of her restaurant. She said she made the decision after numerous appeals to the council failed to get a simple response.

“You are there to serve us but you are evading the public. You are hiding. We have to be paying workers to clear drains which you are responsible for,” the restaurateur charged.

Vice-president of the chamber, Dr Ronald Bourne, was just as trenchant in his criticism of the local government.

“The council has no purpose nor clear mandate,” he said. “It is redundant. We don’t need a parish council, we need a city authority which will govern.”

Chamber president Rudolph Green suggested a closer relationship between the chamber and council, saying that such collaboration could go a far way to improve the situation all round.

But Morris, obviously hurting from the flak, slammed the business persons for failing to be part of the Parish Development Committee.

“You must participate in these matters and help to run the affairs of your parish,” he said. “To be watchdogs making sure that public funds are spent properly. You are needed to serve here so please heed the call.”

He noted the concerns of the chamber, but said the council did not have the financial resources to undertake every problem.

Morris proposed that Constitution Street, which leads into Emancipation Square in Spanish Town, be turned into a toll road and the revenue collected used to develop the historic district, which houses the old King’s House.

He told the chamber that there are plans to build a new vendors’ arcade at the intersection of Bourkes and Oxford roads, but the council was short of funds and will have to enter into a joint venture for the project.

Yesterday, the council’s financial controller, Owen Anderson, told the Observer that the local government was allocated $281 million for the 2001/2002 financial year, while $327 million has been allocated for the current year.