There is growing concern among councillors in Clarendon about the high volume of traffic heading into the town of May Pen, as a result of recent developments in the Mineral Heights area.

Councillor Scean Barnswell (People’s National Party, Hayes Division) raised the issue at this month’s sitting of the Clarendon Municipal Corporation on Thursday.

“The situation as it relates to traffic along the Hayes/Halse Hall main road going south is unbearable and we have been fighting with this as far back as 2014/15. It got worse in the sense that persons from the Mineral Heights Housing scheme have to adjust the hours they go to work.

“Between 7:30 and 15 minutes to nine in the mornings, there is a pile-up of traffic from the roundabout all the way to the Jamalco (Halse Hall) Great House, and we have been asking that something be done about this,” said Barnswell.

He claimed that in 2014, a study was conducted with the National Works Agency (NWA), which looked at how some adjustments could be made to allow for the traffic to flow easily in that area.

Branwell suggested that traffic signal lights could be erected at some points, or the re-routing of traffic on Aluminum Way to one way coming from May Pen instead of going out onto the main road that will cut across and cause congestion.

“Now with Burger King opening up at Millennium Mall, we are seeing a surge of traffic cutting across going into the mall and coming back out. Also, the pedestrians who have to access that mall are at risk. Many times, I see near misses because motorists tend not to want to stop or forget that pedestrians use that thoroughfare just the same.

“I think we need to look if we need that size roundabout, or do we need to reduce the size of the roundabout, or do we need to remove the entire roundabout to increase the traffic flow going west or going north into the town or turning right toward Old Harbour. Something needs to be done chairman. It cannot continue, it’s a waste of production time and it’s a waste of business time. We need to look at it seriously,” argued Barnswell.

“We also need to look at the Glenmuir Corridor, as that area is also congested in the mornings just the same especially during the peak hours. We need to look at it with the NWA and see what can be done,” added Barnswell.

In response, the chairman of the Clarendon Municipal Corporation Joel Williams said he would try to convene a meeting to look at the issue within the next two weeks.

“I will be calling the CEO of NWA to try to arrange a meeting. It was yesterday I was in a discussion and we were looking at taking up the left side of the gas station and have traffic filtered back onto the Bustamante Highway but we can’t do that alone; it has to be done from the National Works Agency, but we will try to get a meeting with the agency within another two weeks,” said Williams.