Erica James-King, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
COUNCILLORS AT the Trelawny Parish Council are lamenting the slow pace of Local Government Reform process, and are pushing for central government to address their concerns urgently.
According to Deputy Mayor of Falmouth Michael Waite, it is important that Local Government officials get much-needed financial resources to effect community development projects.
He charged that the needs of Parish Councillors were being overlooked , while the needs and interests of Members of Parliament (MPs) are being met.
"It's unfair for you to have a set of elected representatives (MPs) with resources, as meagre as it is, and another set (the Councillors) without resources. Yet the same duties are demanded of them, in terms of social progress and other things like that," he told The Gleaner in an interview following Thursday's monthly meeting of the Trelawny Parish Council.
Describing the treatment of Parish Councillors as inimical to "good governance," Mr. Waite is questioning why special allocations are not given to Parish Councillors to be used in housing, educational and other types of community projects.
"The Member of Parliament is assisted with educational funds, Social and Economic Support Programme (SESP) to the tune of approximately $3.5 million annually, housing assistance and other of the necessary benefits that one would need to effectively represent your community. The Councillor being an elected representative is not assisted in any of these."
This local government official admits that local government reform has brought with it, significant movement on the matter of training for local authorities and agencies, as well as effected institutional strengthening.
However, he is adamant that Parish Councillors must be empowered to be the vehicle of change at the community and parish level, if the government is serious about development accompanying local government reform.
At Thursday's meeting a motion was tabled by Mayor of Falmouth, Councillor Joseph Wright, calling for the reform of Local Government "to be deeply entrenched in the Jamaican constitution." The Mayor warned that unless the process was deeply entrenched in the Constitution, it could be halted, abandoned or overturned by successive governments.
A resolution on the matter is to be debated and the Councillors allowed to vote on the issue, at the next monthly meting of the Trelawny Parish Council. Meanwhile, the Deputy Mayor told the Council that at a recent islandwide meeting of major stakeholders in the Local Government sector, there was consensus among both the People's National Party and the Jamaica Labour Party representatives that Local Government Reform was vital to the island's progress and should be given priority attention.
Against this background, the Trelawny Parish Council said it regarded as "unnecessary" and against the "trend of reconciliation," a letter sent by the Manchester Parish Council to the Trelawny Parish Council, calling on the Jamaica Labour Party to make known its position on Local Government Reform.
