Mayor of Falmouth, Jonathan Bartley. - Claudine Housen/Staff Photographer

Nagra Plunkett, Staff Reporter

WESTERN BUREAU:

Mayor of Falmouth, Jonathan Bartley, says there is no need to make special preparations for street people as it readies for the Cricket World Cup next month, as there are no homeless persons in the parish capital.

Speaking against the background of the almost eight-year-old Street People Scandal in Montego Bay, the chairman of the Trelawny Parish Council stated that its homeless population is cared for through intervention by relatives and the Trelawny Poor Relief Department.

"We get the families to take care of them. We didn't dump them, we put them in their homes," Mayor Bartley told an Editors' Forum at Glistening Waters in Falmouth, Trelawny, last Thursday.

Mental health team effective

President of the Trelawny Chamber of Commerce, Dennis Seivwright, who was also present at the special Gleaner function, was quick to add that the parish's "effective mental health team" should also be credited for the achievement.

The mayor noted that three persons were recently observed sleeping on piazzas in Falmouth, and they too were also reintroduced to their families. "Some months ago I spoke to my poor relief officer regarding street people that were sleeping on the piazzas ... and he got to the families and put them in their homes," he said.

"Those families that ask for assistance, in terms of making available space at their home, the parish council did help them."

More than 32 indigent persons were whisked off the streets of Montego Bay on July 19, 2000, in the wee hours of the morning, put on a truck, and left helplessly in St. Elizabeth.

The victims were awarded a monthly stipend from the Government as compensation, following a commission of enquiry which found a female police constable liable for the act.

She was, however, vindicated of abduction and kidnapping charges at the end of her trial in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court.