Left: St Ann Parish Councillor Lydia Richards. Right: Mandeville Mayor Brenda Ramsay.

Two councillors have claimed that a culture of complacency among local government functionaries has contributed to infrastructural malaise in parish divisions.

Lydia Richards, councillor for the Bensonton division in St Ann, said, "I think some councillors are too lazy, and I think that's a big thing. You get the job and you don't work the job, and I think that is a big thing. People look towards us as councillors and sometimes we let them down."

Lead by example

Richards, who was speaking at a Gleaner Editors' Forum recently, argued that many councillors have failed to provide the type of leadership that could drive community transformation.

"I am a councillor and I have 16 districts, and in my 16 districts I have 16 citizens' association groups, whatever you call them. These are the people that I work through and it works beautifully, I can tell you that. I can stay right here now and one might call me for water and I can say all right, you talk to Devon and Devon can organise for that to come.

"I believe that if you ask the citizens to come together, the councillors should be there, and you will say come together and the councillor don't turn up ... They are not going to turn up, so you have to lead by example, and that is what we are not doing, we need to lead by example.

Brenda Ramsay, mayor of Mandeville, agrees.

"Some councillors are insecure. They feel that if they get others involved, they are giving up 'power'. The parish development committees are key to achieving a lot within our parishes. I can speak for Manchester. When we started out, not many councillors were on board with us, and we went through ... .

She added, "We now have a parish development plan in the final stages, and we work beautifully with these people, because if the citizens don't buy into what you are doing, it becomes three times or 10 times or maybe impossible to get anything done."

Parish development plan

But Richards was more blunt. "In terms of the parish coming together, we have what are called the parish development committees. I think the councillors are afraid of them, because I have heard they come to take over, and they come to this and they come to that.

"I believe if we work with them, things will get done, and I think this is what we need to do. We intend to do that now, to work with the parish development committees. They have a plan and we have a plan, and we are working towards the same end result, so we need to work together," the Bensonton councillor said.