MONTEGO BAY, St James — Government Senator Charles Sinclair has called on Western Parks and Market Waste Management Limited (WPM), the regional arm of the State’s National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), to shut down an illegal dump site in the Ironshore Industrial Estate Area.

“Around Ironshore Industrial Estate behind Flankers there is a significant illegal dump site… When it is that NSWMA will remove it?” he asked.

He was speaking during Thursday’s monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation, in his capacity as councillor for the Montego Bay North East Division (Jamaica Labour Party).

Sinclair emphasised the urgency of having the illegal dumpsite removed.

“The area needs to be dealt with expeditiously; it cannot remain like that,” he said.

He told the meeting the site is being used by “a private operator who stores crashed motor vehicles”.

“I went there the other day and the area is a disgrace, an absolute disgrace. The place is like a junkyard,” he said.

However, unlike some junkyards where items can be reused, he said the bulk of items at the Ironshore site were unusable.

“Crash vehicles are there, vehicles that are… beyond repair and there is no hope of people taking parts off them to put on other vehicles because some of them are completely burnt out,” he said.

Sinclair questioned the frequency of garbage collection by WPM in the Flankers Ironshore area and implied that could be contributing to the garbage pile up. “In a previous dispensation the NSWMA would do a twice weekly collection for that area. Is that still being done and, if not, why not?… I suspect that too contributes to why it’s in the state that it’s in,” he said.

He suggested that the agency partner with the health department and municipal corporation to rectify the situation. “The public health department also needs to go to that area to see what is happening there because it is terrible, very terrible,” Sinclair urged.

In his response, WPM Public Cleansing Inspector Patrick Gilchrist promised to have the enforcement team visit and take the necessary actions to have the problem resolved.