MAY PEN, Clarendon — Still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Beryl which battered southern parishes, Councillor Tanya-Lee Williams (Jamaica Labour Party, May Pen North Division) has expressed annoyance and dissatisfaction with Jamaica Public Service (JPS), for what she has described as haphazard work that has resulted in impassable roads within her division.

May Pen North covers areas such as Bucknor, Western Park, and Woods.

In giving her hurricane update at last Thursday’s meeting of the parish’s municipal corporation, Williams attributed the deplorable road conditions to sloppy work done by JPS in preparation for the hurricane season. She said after observing JPS workers placing branches trimmed from trees into the drains in Woods, she notified the utility company’s parish manager.

“I called him to inform him, and nothing was done. On Friday into Saturday when we had the heavy rains, Western Park, and sections of Bucknor, and persons on the flats were flooded out because these [branches] came down, blocked the drains, and caused the water to rise,” she lamented.

Williams — who has been a councillor for seven years — also chided National Works Agency (NWA) for what she said was its inaction in her division, even as the road condition continues to worsen. She fears the damaged roads could have life-threatening implications for residents.

“NWA has been missing in action in our space. May Pen Woods is still in a deplorable condition after the storm has passed and the flood waters are gone. There are sections in there that are single lanes, and [NWA has] not even [bothered] to go in there to tie something to say, ‘Caution’. There’s a section of the Woods roadway that, each time we have rains, it keeps breaking and breaking… It is almost now in the middle of the road and nothing is there to say to persons for them to be cautious,” she bemoaned.

Williams argued further that even busy main roads are affected by NWA’s lackadaisical efforts.

“Even the Bustamante Highway where we have trees hanging over from the storm, nothing has been done by NWA. They are missing in our parish. For quite a while we have been complaining, and something needs to be done where NWA is concerned with the parish of Clarendon. Each time we write a letter to them seeking assistance, nothing is being done — and these are some of the things that are causing some areas to be flooded because of the NWA drains,” the irate councillor said.

There was support from her colleague, Councillor Carlton Bailey (People’s National Party, Milk River Division).

“The destruction that has befallen Clarendon, apart from JPS, is that the drains have not been cleaned; and their [NWA] drains are the drains that are affecting the community because all of us here, since year, have cleaned in recent time all our drains that we know will impact the communities. They [NWA] have not done so. And I find myself in a position sometimes where I have to clean some of their drains to alleviate [damage] in a community like Clifton, a community like Sedge Pond,” he noted.

Bailey described both agencies’ absence from the municipal corporation’s meeting as disappointing.

“In my mind, JPS and NWA is the two major forces that have [contributed to] the destruction in Clarendon, and I am really, really sad that not one of those agencies have seen it fit to be present this morning,” he told last Thursday’s meeting of the municipal corporation.