Renewed appeal for clean-up after bodies dumped in Sandy Gully
Published:Tuesday | August 23, 2022 | 12:09 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
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A decade and a half ago, Dwight Duncan and Neisha Williams could stay in their Seaview Gardens community and look across the Sandy Gully to Riverton City in St Andrew. However, their view is now blocked as poor maintenance has resulted in the gully...
A decade and a half ago, Dwight Duncan and Neisha Williams could stay in their Seaview Gardens community and look across the Sandy Gully to Riverton City in St Andrew.
However, their view is now blocked as poor maintenance has resulted in the gully being overgrown with shrubs and polluted with old appliances, piles of garbage and mounds of silt.
Repeated calls for the authorities to clear the gully have fallen on deaf ears over the years. Its unkempt state has provided the cover for dumping bodies, including that of missing correctional officer Shannon ‘David’ Briscoe, which was recovered in the area over a week ago.
Residents of the area had reportedly also seen three men throwing another corpse into the gully on June 8.
“In 1983, di gully did clear and we coulda run down in deh and play. All Sunday, you have kids who used to play marble and you have cart weh yuh push wid di bearings as skateboard, but that can’t go on now because di gully need fi upgrade,” Duncan told The Gleaner on Monday.
He, along with Williams, blame the authorities for the poor state of the Sandy Gully, including St Andrew Western Member of Parliament (MP) Anthony Hylton.
“Di MP fi tek dem thing up in hand, but di MP nuh do nothing. Dem nah do nothing,” Duncan told The Gleaner. “Him fi step out to it, but weh him do? Him nuh do nothing!”
Duncan and Williams both believe that if community members are given contracts to clean the section of the gully between Seaview Gardens and Riverton City – and even beyond the bridge from Spanish Town Road – the drainage system could be cleared.
“Find means and ways to get it done because it needs to be done,” Duncan said.
“You have nuff youth pon di corner. Gi dem couple ‘lass and tell dem fi go in a di gully and chop out, and they will do it! They will do it! Because it a go benefit them,” added Williams.
FLOODING A CONCERN
Williams said that her concern goes beyond the gully. She is also concerned about Chesterfield Drive, which is often flooded after even light showers.
“When the rain fall, you see da whole heap a garbage come out, a lot and dem sumn deh. It look awful fi true. Di gully need fi maintain,” she stressed.
In a press statement on Monday, the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) – of which Hylton is a member – said the St Andrew Western MP was renewing a call for the Government to undertake speedy and routine cleaning of the Sandy Gully.
“The appalling state of the gully has been the subject of several calls by the member of parliament for it to be cleaned, dating back to at least the last five years,” Hylton said.
“The finding of bodies in the gully over the last few weeks has heightened the concerns of the citizens of Seaview Gardens, Riverton Meadows, and surrounding communities that the garbage-filled gully, which drains the upper reaches of St Andrew, is becoming a favourite place for more than refuse to be dumped.”
The statement illustrated that the gully has “become a clear and present danger to the communities, the livelihood of fisherfolk in Hunts Bay, the port of Kingston, and the environment”.
Some Seaview Gardens residents are not in support of the call, however. They say that the poor state of the gully serves as a form of protection as previously, criminals would rob persons on Atlantic Boulevard –which runs parallel to the waterway – then climb down into the gully on ladders and head to the other side, where Riverton is located.
“Fi clean di gully, dem a go need police fi come guard dem,” one man said.