Staff from E&M Construction Company remove waste on King Street in Falmouth on Friday. - Richard Morais/Freelance Writer

Richard Morais, Gleaner Writer

FALMOUTH, Trelawny

As the ICC WI 2007 Cricket World Cup (CWC) approaches, with Falmouth to host the opening ceremony, a comprehensive multimillion dollar clean-up and beautification project is being conducted in the town and to a lesser extent the constituency.

A seven-day project to remove derelict vehicles and bulky waste, old appliances and so on, has just been concluded. The programme ended last Friday. It included the removal of 80 vehicles along with waste from the retirement dump. Five trucks and two flatbeds, along with a crane, were used in the process.

Few problems

A spokesperson for E & M Construction Company, which handled the removal, said the definition of derelict vehicles, those on blocks, somehow hampered the process and there were also a few with inflatable tyres. He, however, added that owners, by and large, didn't resist the removal, therefore there were few problems.

The zinc fence removal project which was introduced to Falmouth approximately four years ago, which was stopped, will be restarted through the Urban Development Corporation's Lift Up Jamaica Project.

The programme includes the removal of zinc fences, to be replaced with picket fences at no cost to the owners if they are in agreement. The targeted streets are Duke and Market in Falmouth and that programme is set to run for two weeks. Just fewer than 30 persons are working on the project.

Slated to start today is the general clean-up, which includes the removal of debris, power washing of the town and the painting and whitewashing of certain places.

While not denying that CWC is spurring the clean-up, Member of Parliament Dr. Patrick Harris stressed that some of the things were always being done but to a lesser extent.