FALMOUTH,Trelawny — To address the horrific traffic congestion on Tharpe Street in the historic town of Falmouth, the Trelawny Municipal Corporation (TMC) will be spending roughly $9 million on a renovation project of the rundown Tharpe Street car park.

Mayor of Falmouth and chairman of the Trelawny Municipal Corporation (TMC), Councillor C Junior Gager, said that funding is already in place for the restoration and the project should commence soon.

We have the funding in place and that will be about $8.9 million to $9 million; we have met with the police and Port Authority and all the stakeholders but unfortunately, the taxi association did not turn up to that meeting. The Transport Authority had another meeting and apologised. So, we will be having another sensitisation meeting where we will discuss and hear feedback,” Gager said.

The taxi operators, who are to load at the facility following the renovation exercise, are those plying the routes from St Ann, Duncans, Clark’s Town, Florence Hall, Daniel Town, the southern parts of Trelawny, and other communities, to Falmouth.

The Falmouth mayor said the scope of the work includes the asphalting of the grounds at the facility, the replacement of bathroom and plumbing fixtures, painting of sidewalks, and installation of electrical connections, among other things.

“We will be furnishing the bathroom facilities, making sure that the sidewalks along the road is painted, putting in the necessary facilities such as lighting… everything that would make a park work and even doing some asphalting,” Gager told the Observer West.

President of the Coastal Transportation Association Hopeton Gordon is contending that the success of operating from the upgraded transportation centre will hinge on enforcement efforts by the police to ensure that the registered cabbies operate from inside the facility, their unlicensed counterparts will not operate freely outside.

“It will work but everybody must go inside the park. They cannot force some people inside the park and some not going inside, that cannot work. Every taxi man should go inside there, but when you have taximan go inside and the robots just load on the road, it is unfair,” Gordon expressed. “How the people dem inside the pen going to manage when them have extra bills to pay, them have road licence to pay, them have bigger insurance and other fees to pay? It is not easy!”

Superintendent Carlos Russell, commander of the Trelawny Police Division, gave the assurance that upon completion of the renovation exercise, the police will be adopting a zero-tolerance approach to the cabbies who refuse from operating outside the facility.

He noted that during a recent meeting with the TMC, the police, and representatives from the Port Authority of Jamaica, operators of the Falmouth port, one of the issues discussed was Gordon’s concerns.

“That was one of the discussions that we had. The first thing that needs to be done is for the municipal corporation to renovate the place, and get it to a state where it is in good repair. They have to fix up the place first, that is number one,” Superintendent Russell said.

“Secondly, we had asked them (TMC) to arrange another meeting that would include the members of the taxi association, all of the stakeholders, so that we can have that discussion with them to let them know that is where we are going, that we are going to use that area as a transport centre. I was told it was gazetted already, so it is just for them now to have the discussion and to decide when we are going to start and then we start the enforcement from there.”

Gordon explained that he only received the invitation for the first meeting at the eleventh hour and could not make it as he had a prior engagement. He, however, confirmed that provided he gets ample notification, he will be present at the next meeting barring it is not held on a Monday or a Wednesday when he is generally unavailable.

“If it is on a Monday or a Wednesday, I will not be available. But if I know about the meeting, I will plan to make it on the other weekdays,” said the head of the transport association.