SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — Councillor Christopher Williams (Jamaica Labour Party, Santa Cruz Division) says he is gravely concerned that a telecommunications outage caused by vandalism is adversely affecting areas west of here including the Lacovia Police Station.

Williams told the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday that the police station has been without telephone and Internet service for over a month.

“What I have found out is that if persons really want to reach out to the Lacovia police they actually have to dial 119 and then the controller would contact somebody on their personal phone at the station for them to respond in a community,” Williams said.

He noted that the Lacovia Police Station serves communities including Knoxwood, Burnt Savanna, Slipe, Holland Mountain, Middlesex and Cornwall. Ground was broken in midyear for a new police station building, which is expected to be completed within two and a half years.

“This is a serious concern, because it is over a month now and we are basically asking Flow to move speedily to try and correct the matter. We know it is not a problem that they have created on themselves, but we are still asking on behalf of the citizens in the different communities that are served by the Lacovia Police Station to move quickly and try to help these people,” he said.

Last Thursday Flow, in a response to an Observer Online story, said Santa Cruz and adjoining areas have been affected by several incidents of theft and vandalism.

“Within the last three months, there have been at least five incidents of theft/vandalism of cable infrastructure in Park Mountain which is located within a two-kilometre radius of Santa Cruz. Vandalised copper cables were replaced at the Park Mountain Primary School on August 28, 2022. The newly replaced cables were burnt on October 18 after they came in contact with commercial electricity cables. These cables were replaced but were again vandalised on October 23,” the statement from Flow read in part.

The company said its technicians are exploring alternative options for providing Internet service to the school and other customers within the community this month.

It added that Santa Cruz and other communities are earmarked for fibre-fast technology within the next three years.

But Williams is appealing for the process of restoring telecoms service to the affected areas to be prioritised.

“I am quite aware of the situation with the Park Mountain area and the school being affected and as an educator myself, I know the importance of having access to the Internet and the value of that in teaching and learning,” he said.

Principal of Park Mountain Primary Keisha Reid told the Observer that the service outage has forced the school to explore the possibility of Internet access from another company.

“I am planning on using a different [service provider] in Santa Cruz for the time being, because I have no other option. I really need the service and I am not getting any surety as to when the Internet might be back from Flow,” she said.

Williams said people who work remotely are also adversely affected.

“Because some [of them] would still be working from home in terms of the type of job that they do and they don’t have that opportunity now to basically do so,” he said.

He is imploring residents to desist from disrupting the telecommunications network.

“Vandalism is the major problem. Those unscrupulous persons who continue to prey on the equipment of the service providers, but it has been over a month now and it is basically affecting the communities that want to call the police station to make reports about incidents in their neck of the woods,” he said.

“I must say to these people who continue to prey on the equipment of these service providers to desist from doing so. Go and find a real job and stop creating havoc in the communities and putting people at a disadvantage, who are really depending on the [telecoms] service,” added Williams.