MONTEGO BAY, St James — Councillor for Montego Bay Central Division Joshua Cummings is lashing out at individuals who he said repeatedly dispose of bulky waste at skips placed in Norwood for community use.

“People seem to want to turn the area into a mini Retirement dump,” he told the Jamaica Observer on Monday.

A visit to the community showed mounds of bulky waste including mattresses, electronics and appliances on the ground beneath three skips intended for domestic waste.

Cummings said his checks have indicated that most of the garbage is not generated by the community.

“What really hurt me is that most of these people are not from Norwood. When I catch them and I ask them, ‘Where are you from?’ [They say] ‘Ironshore, Coral Gardens, Rhyne Park, Spot Valley’,” said the councillor.

“The next question I ask is, ‘Would you live in Norwood?’ [They say] ‘No’. You not living in Norwood, then why you want to use Norwood as a dumping place?” he continued.

Annoyed that the entrance to the community is being marred by garbage, Cummings is urging those who dump bulky waste there to take the items to the landfill at Retirement.

According to him, the skips were originally seen as a solution when poor road conditions made it challenging for garbage trucks to enter sections of Norwood.

“We used to have some serious road infrastructure problems where the garbage trucks couldn’t go inside the community, so then we did some work to facilitate the persons who the trucks couldn’t reach,” Cummings explained.

“We have reached about 75 or 80 per cent where we fixed up most of the roads now,” he said.

The plan, Cummings said, is to see if the State agency responsible for garbage collection can send smaller trucks to Norwood and decrease reliance on skips.

“In discussions with the member of parliament, he’s going to have some discussion with the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) to see if they can provide a small truck to do the inner roads for Norwood,” disclosed the councillor.

He said he is prepared to take action if this is successful and bulky waste is still dumped in the community.

“We might completely lock off that area or we have to put up some signs that speak about prosecution and fines for persons who dispose of bulky waste,” Cummings told the Observer.

“That is the direction that we are going,” he added.

He also spoke of plans to work with the NSWMA to address the dumping that is undermining community beautification efforts.

“We are planning on engaging the NSWMA again in regards to the enforcement team that they have that can ticket persons. I am going to engage them again to use up that resource,” Cummings vowed.

For now, he continues to clean up the mess.

“We are going to clean it up shortly; I just got off the phone with a guy for the tractor,” the councillor said Monday.