WHITEHOUSE, Westmoreland – Plans by Everton Tomlinson, the president of the Westmoreland Football Association (WFA), to move flood lights from the Frome Sports Complex to the Llandilo field have hit a snag as a number of people, including the councillor for the Frome Division of the Westmoreland Parish Council, have strongly objected to the move.

To gain support for his plans, Tomlinson appealed for assistance to install lights at the Llandilo field where all games in the association’s Major League competition will be played this season.

“We need to play our games under lights later in the day,” said Tomlinson, as he made his case during a recent presentation and awards ceremony at the Sandals Whitehouse for the 2013-14 Westmoreland FA Captain’s Bakery and Grill Major League football competition.

Tomlinson explaining that some teams had to play with reserve players as an increasing number of players were not getting time off from work for games that start at 3:30pm.

He later told the Jamaica Observer West that some of the lights that were erected at the Frome Sports Complex in 2001 have already been moved and are now in storage at the offices of the WFA in Llandilo, Westmoreland.

But Frome Division councillor Paul Wilson, who is strongly opposing the move, told the Observer West on Tuesday that he had filed a complaint at the Frome Police Station on the matter and was awaiting a report on their investigations.

“Mr Tomlinson had admitted to me in front of other citizens that he had taken the lights and they were being stored…,” Wilson said, describing it as “lunacy.”

The People’s National Party councillor said that while he had encouraged Tomlinson and the Westmoreland Football Association in organising the league, “you cannot vandalise an established sporting venue to carry out this”.

In his address at Sandals Whitehouse, Tomlinson said the lights had not been used in years and the support systems had been badly deteriorated.

He said the lights were given to the Westmoreland Sports Committee in 2001 when he was the chairman “to be placed at a venue of choice, and Frome was chosen then”.

The WFA president added, however, that the lights were last used by Reno FC during the 2002 Premier League season.

He argued that it was a waste of time to have the lights at a venue where they were not been used, especially at a time when there was a great need for them.

“Night football is big business in Westmoreland; people have nowhere to go and want to move that crowd to Llandilo which is close to the town centre of Savanna-la-Mar,” he said.

Meanwhile, Tomlinson has called for a meeting with Member of Parliament for Westmoreland Western Dr Wykeham McNeill and Mayor of Savanna-la-Mar Bertel Moore in an effort to resolve the issue.