Dear Editor,

I am a resident of the Comfort District in Manchester Central. This community has not had garbage collection well over two months. I visited the local office in Mandeville four weeks ago and was told that the community would get collection that same week. We did not! I gave them an extra week. Still no collection.

I then visited the office again on November 7, 2016. I was told the truck was currently in the Melrose Housing Scheme (in very close proximity to the Comfort District) and we would get collection Thursday, November 10. I wish to make it known that there was a time when Melrose Housing Scheme would get garbage collection every week religiously, while months would pass before Comfort & Broadleaf districts get any. I had to call the head office and Peter Bunting’s office to get our collection.

Fast-track to Thursday, November 10, still no collection as promised. I visited the office the Friday and I demanded to speak to the dispatcher for the area. He maintained that we would get collection Tuesday, November 15. Again, no collection.

Once upon a time I would have blamed the National Solid Waste Management Authority office, but now I’m specifically laying most of the blame on the dispatcher, as it’s painfully obvious that housing schemes are prioritised over communities. Dispatchers are the ones responsible for sending out trucks to areas for collection. They would not dare have garbage piled up for months in wealthy neighbourhoods. Though these neighbourhoods might also have collection problems now and again, the period is nowhere as long as we have been experiencing in the Comfort District. I understand that the current dispatcher for the area is new on the job. However, he sent collection to an area which hadn’t got collection for four weeks (Melrose H/S) on November 7, as opposed to an area in excess of 12 weeks. Go figure!

Garbage now litters the roads of Comfort District. There are mounds. There is a bauxite road which is no longer being used and now residents use it as a dump. Also, some residents are now disposing of their garbage in gullies behind their homes. This is a health risk as the garbage would now be infested with maggots and mosquitoes and there is an unbearable stench.

On Nomination Day, both political parties drove through the area with the garbage piled up; however, I wondered if they took notice.

Mr Dispatcher, Comfort residents are paying taxes, too. Comfort residents vote in elections, too.

The matter of steady garbage collection should be of paramount importance on the agenda of the Manchester Parish Council and this upcoming local government election. I don’t wish to hear any excuses with regard to trucks being broken down when the well-to-do housing scheme in close proximity is getting its collection.

All communities matter. I know they do when it comes to elections. Please act accordingly.

Concerned resident

doctabird6@gmail.com