MAY PEN, Clarendon – May Pen mayor, Milton Brown, has given the Clarendon Parish Council a passing grade, saying there have been a number of successes since he and the current batch of councillors took office in June.

Among the achievements Brown listed were the numerous beautification projects the council had undertaken across the parish. These include the Mineral Heights and the Glenmuir Road/Bustamante Highway roadside projects, which, the mayor said, were both progressing well.

The public park in Chapelton as well as a number of sidewalk gardens, which had been established by the councillors from the northern section of the parish, were also said to be in good condition.

Mayor Brown added that the Dr Abner Wright Park in South West Clarendon had been cleaned up and was expected to be beautified by the end of January 2004. Also on the southern side, he commended Jamalco for its joint project with the council, of retiring the illegal dumpsite on the Halse Hall main road and converting the area into a landscaped green area.

The mayor also pointed to some successes with road repairs, with nine thoroughfares having been attended to in recent months, under the council’s Road Maintenance Programme.

These include:

. Coates Pen,

. Mineral Heights,

. Morrison Hall,

. Cabbage Hill,

. West Park Road,

. Bull Head Road,

. Content Road,

. Herman Morgan Street in York Town, and

. the Gibbs Town Road in the Rocky Point area.

Additionally, Brown said, emergency work had been done on the road from Kellits Square going north, while work is ongoing in Canaan Heights, Mineral Heights, Portland Cottage and York Town (cemetery road) with support from the Equalisation Fund.

With funds in place and preparation work now under way to begin its road patching programme and clean-up, the council chairman noted that 17 roads across the parish had been included in the STABEX Road Rehabilitation Programme which is funded through a European grant.

“We aim to ensure that the quality of work done by the Clarendon Parish Council will be first-class,” pledged Mayor Brown.

He also reported early success in acquiring funding from the local business community to implement the council’s plans to refurbish the May Pen Market. Six of seven entities with which discussions had been held had responded positively, the mayor said.