FLORENCE HALL, Trelawny — As the Trelawny Municipal Corporation (TMC) ramps up its revenue collection drive, a team led by Falmouth Mayor C Junior Gager descended on the gated community of Florence Hall on Monday morning serving more than 20 notices for building breaches and the unapproved erection of signs and billboards. The TMC has also served notice that other gated communities should expect a visit.

Gager did not disclose the amount of money being targeted in the drive; however, he noted that revenue from the construction boom in the parish should be adequate to “take us out of any problems that exists and to keep the council flowing”.

The owner of a garage at which a number of vehicles were parked on premises zoned for residential use, and owners of residential units that had been converted into business establishments were among those served notices. The TMC team serving the notices included members of the building department, the revenue department, and the municipal police.

“We have been out all this morning and we have been walking the roads. There were roughly 20-odd buildings that are of concern to us and so we have left notices for them to come in to the council. We have seen where a garage is being operated within the scheme. We have seen where houses that were made for living quarters have been turned into business places. In fact, our revenue team was out there too, and notices were served for the [erection of] some signs,” Gager told reporters following the operation.

“People buying into that community weren’t buying next door to a business place because they are going to be [disturbed]. When they want to go to their beds to sleep at nights they can’t, because it’s a business place and there is a lot of noise. So, we are saying business places should be in their designated places. Living quarters is a different place, so you can’t just build and turn it into a business place and then you expect other residents to be comfortable with you,” he added.

The mayor warned that other gated communities will be targeted during the ongoing revenue drive which began in the southern parts of the parish and has now made its way to the northern side.

“This isn’t our first visit. We have been on a mission. We have been visiting various areas, starting from southern Trelawny coming down. We will be visiting all gated communities. We have written to the presidents [of the stratas] and we have asked them to make sure that we [can] access those communities that we can see, because looking across you can see the amount of structures, but how many of them has been approved by the municipal corporation?” Gager said.

The TMC chairman stressed that the team will be following up on “visits to these special areas that are of concern to us to make sure that everyone complies”. He noted that non-compliance could result in violators ending up before the court, but was optimistic it would not be necessary to go to that extreme.

“We will serve at least three notices if they don’t comply, but I don’t believe we will get to that. Once they come in we will ask them to go and get their plan, and get their proper approval, and go through that system. If they refuse, we have the opportunity to take it to the courts,” he noted.

Gager stressed that the clampdown was, for the most part unrelated to buildings damaged during the passage of Hurricane Melissa last October.

“Many of these buildings that we are talking about are new buildings that are being built [where] persons submit plans, but what is on the plan isn’t what is being built — and that is cause for concern,” he said.

He further noted that there were other worrying signs detected inside the gated community.

“There are concerns where we think we have to go back with the health department because we have seen encroachment on [the] roadway, we have seen derelict vehicles being parked, and that’s a big concern for us. We are looking at it, as we must protect ourselves from leptospirosis that is going around,” Gager argued.

“We have seen for ourselves, too, the speeding in and out of the scheme. That’s another cause for concern. We’ll be calling on the president, and a team of the management committee for that scheme, and we’ll be having some discussions with them to see how we can make things safer and flow smoothly,” he added.

GAGER… we will be visiting all gated communities (Photo: Horace Hines)