Rasbert Turner, Gleaner Writer

SPANISH TOWN, St. Catherine:

Natalie Campbell Rodriquez, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Councillor for the Westchester division, will be replaced as the sitting councillor in January, after missing six consecutive meetings of the council. Mrs. Campbell Rodriquez, who failed to show at yesterday's sitting of the council, has not attended a meeting since May.

Secretary/manager at the parish council, Michael Morris, told councillors at yesterday's meeting that for Mrs. Campbell Rodriquez to be given the boot, her absences would have to be recorded in the minutes and the seat declared vacant by the Supreme Court.

We need answers

Yesterday, Ralston Wilson, councillor for the Old Harbour division, took his colleagues to task for being slow in declaring the Westchester seat vacant. "We cannot have a councillor not coming to six consecutive meetings and the seat not considered vacant. This must stop now and we need answers," he said.

Mrs. Campbell Rodriques, in an interview with The Gleaner on Wednesday, said she had no political ambitions and that she would not be running again as councillor.

"All I am asking is that the $1 million that is sent to be spent in the division is spent in a transparent manner," she said. She added that the business of the people must come first and that she was still legally the sitting councillor of Westchester, until she is replaced.