Trelawny residents give councillors failing grade

Residents of several municipal divisions in Trelawny are giving their councillors negative reviews, ahead of the Local Government Elections, which is set for November 28.

Persons with whom Western Focus spoke across the parish were quite vocal about their disappointment in the performance, or lack thereof, of their political representatives at the Trelawny Municipal Corporation, with the lack of a general presence in the community being one of the biggest sore points for some individuals.

"Mi nuh know the councillor. Mi nuh hear nobody say they see him, and mi nuh see them (representatives) do nothing at all," said Beverly Reid, a business operator in the Wakefield community, whose councillor is Jonathan Bartley.

Joy Cooper, a craft market vendor and resident of parish capital Falmouth, had even sharper words to describe her councillor, Garth Wilkinson, who is also chairman of the Trelawny Municipal Corporation and the mayor of Falmouth.

"You see Garth, he is of no use to us or for us. Garth only drives past here...I do not even talk to him, he does not come and address us like he is for us," Cooper complained. "He put us here, and is telling us to go out the road and put up our tents...we are feeling the pangs of hell out here."

Meanwhile, Prudence Eunis, a resident of Samuels Prospect in the Duncans division, raked her councillor Donovan White over the coals for failing to provide water to her community.

"When I am out of water, I have to buy water from the Parish Council. We have not had water for the longest while...there is nothing wrong with the water supply, it is just politics," said Eunis. "We do not have a councillor. I have not seen the councillor in the area."

Raymond Grant, a shopkeeper in the Clark's Town community, expressed a desire to see his councillor do work on the roadway and to finish some work which was to be done on the local market.

"The road is not in good condition, so they could fix it. They were going to do some work on the market, and I want them to do that," said Grant. "I do not see much going on, and I do not know who my councillor is."

The Trelawny Municipal Corporation has nine divisions spread across the parish's constituencies of Northern Trelawny and Southern Trelawny.