ST CATHERINE, Jamaica – Deputy Mayor of Spanish Town, the People’s National Party’s Ralston Wilson is calling on the Government to address what he said is poor garbage collection by the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) in the old capital and other sections of St Catherine.

“They are not doing any work. When things were bad and we did not have any trucks, they complained about not having vehicles. Now they have more trucks than they can direct but they are not doing the work,” Wilson charged at a recent St Catherine Municipal Corporation meeting.

He is urging Minister of Local Government Desmond McKenzie to meet with NSWMA Executive Director Audley Gordon over the issue.

“I am wondering what is really happening to (the NSWMA) and I would love to see the minister of local government have dialogue with Mr Gordon to find out what’s wrong,” Wilson said. “He cannot complain about truck again and I think he has personnel but the garbage is not being collected. Spanish Town is an example – they are doing very little to assist the people of Spanish Town.”

The St Catherine Municipal Corporation and NSWMA have been at loggerheads over the collection of the garbage in the parish for some time.

Last year, Spanish Town Mayor Norman Scott insisted that it was the NSWMA, and not the municipal corporation, that should answer for the unkempt state of the No 5 Cemetery in the old capital despite the burial ground being owned and operated by the parish council – a suggestion which was ‘rubbished’ by NSWMA’s Gordon.

In late 2022, following the addition of new trucks to the fleet of the agency, the NSWMA sought to assure residents of St Catherine that the parish will be kept clean, starting with the main roads.