MAY PEN'S Mayor, Milton Brown, has blasted the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) for what has been described as the agency's poor handling of the garbage disposal arrangements in place for the parish of Clarendon.
In addressing a nearly full slate of Councillors at the monthly general meeting of the Clarendon Parish Council last Thursday, Mayor Brown said the council was aware of garbage not being collected in many places across the parish, contrary to the arrangements in place. Adding insult to injury, said Mr. Brown, were circumstances where even after being informed of the non-collection of garbage, attention to the circumstance was sometimes not forthcoming from the NSWMA.
WEAKNESSES
"If the garbage is removed, National Solid Waste gets paid. If it is not removed, they still get paid," said the mayor of the weaknesses in the arrangements in place. In declaring that he was "not too sure of the basis for their payment," Mayor Brown said the solid waste agency had submitted a budget to supply its service to the Parish Council "without finding out from us what we need to have them doing, how often we need to get it done and how much we can and are willing to pay (for the service)."
The mayor said as a result of the "dismal performance" of the NSWMA across Clarendon, there was now the unacceptable situation where "dumps are now in existence in many places along our highways and byways." He also said there was no provision within the unilaterally-imposed garbage arrangements, for the disposal of construction-type waste materials.
In venting his own frustration and that of the Clarendon Parish Council, which the mayor said was being widely blamed for the inadequate garbage disposal service, Mr. Brown said the NSWMA was like "a fat elephant with the appetite of a hungry lion, bearing down on the Council and the people of the parish, without any apparent focus on balancing what it supplies with what it demands for the service."
