SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — Councillor Arthel Colley (People’s National Party, Negril Division) has raised concerns that there is unfair distribution of relief aid to residents in his division who are still reeling from weather-related events.

During Thursday’s monthly meeting of Westmoreland Municipal Corporation (WMC) Colley said, as requested by Member of Parliament for Westmoreland Western Morland Wilson, (Jamaica Labour Party), he submitted more than 20 names of residents who were in dire need of assistance after Hurricane Beryl.

According to Colley, none of these people had been contacted nor have they received any form of assistance to date.

“I asked him [Wilson] about it,” the councillor told the meeting.

“He said he sent the request to the Ministry of Labour. After that I saw him in church again [and] asked him, ‘Did you submit the names?’. He said, ‘Yes’. I believed him,” Colley added.

He maintained that the residents whose names he submitted lost roofs, their houses and/or businesses suffered major damage from which they were having a challenge recovering and therefore, they are badly in need of help.

Colley contrasted this with other residents who he said received more help than they needed.

“The bad thing about it is that I know an individual who lost one sheet of zinc on her fowl coop. She received six sheet of ply and 10 sheet of zinc,” Colley asserted.

“I am calling on the Member of Parliament because the Prime Minister [Andrew Holness] said to the Ministry of Labour, ‘Fix the problem’. Send the money to the people, and if it is not reaching the people, somebody is sabotaging… the Negril division. I want it to be dealt with,” he urged.

After the July 3 passage of Hurricane Beryl, the Government allocated approximately $9 million in relief funds for each constituency. On November 13 a disbursement of $22 million was approved for each constituency to help recover from Tropical Storm Rafael.