By Cedric Johnson, Gleaner WriterWESTERN BUREAU:
DESPITE THE industrial action now taking place at the Westmoreland Parish Council, Mayor of Savanna-la-Mar, Delford Morgan, has declared that the regular business of the council will go on without interruption.
Mr. Morgan says that members of the public who have legitimate business to take care of can visit the offices of the council during its normal working periods.
The 14 councillors, 10 PNP and four JLP, recently cut short their scheduled monthly meeting, in a unanimous move against the failure of the Ministry of the Local Government to provide $78 million for the construction of a municipal building on the council's property at Dunbar's River in Savanna-la-Mar.
"We are assuring the public that their day-to-day business at the council will not be adversely affected by the councillors' protest action," Mayor Morgan announced recently.
INSULTING AND DEMEANING
"But no further meeting will be held until
there is a firm and clear commitment on the part of the ministry to provide us with proper
accommodation."
Mayor Morgan said it was insulting and demeaning to expect the council's staff, including the councillors, to function without proper sanitary conveniences and to have them storing records in old containers.
"In November 2003, a draft plan for the proposed building came to us from the ministry which we approved; the undertaking was that the construction should have commenced the following year (2004), with the council finding $20 million to go with the ministry's allocation," explained the mayor.
"We are the only parish council in Jamaica without our own home," said Mr. Morgan.
