By Erica James-King, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
JAMAICA PUBLIC Service Company (JPSCo.) has given its commitment to Trelawny that its defective streetlights would be repaired or replaced by Christmas. This was stated in an emergency meeting on Wednesday between the power supplier and the Parish Council representatives.
Some 55 per cent of the streetlights in Trelawny are dysfunctional.
"The JPSCo told us during the meeting that the shortage of trucks had caused their inactivity in addressing the problem," said Mayor of Falmouth Jonathan Bartley.
SPEEDY REPAIRS
"However, they have assured us that repairs will be speeded up shortly. They have also requested that we provide them with a priority list of the communities which have faulty street lights."
The meeting on Wednesday followed a decision by the council to confront JPSCo. on what it said was the 'snail's pace' at which the company was dealing with the problem.
Mayor Bartley said they had made repeated requests for the JPSCo. to address the situation, and had got little or no positive response on the matter.
"For several months now we have furnished the JPSCo. with an audit of the streetlights in the parish that are not working and got promises several times that the repair programme would commence shortly, but they failed to deliver on their promises," said Mayor Bartley.
OUTRAGE MEMBERS
What further angered the Mayor and the other members of the Trelawny Parish Council is that the parish has been up-to-date in all its payments of monthly JPSCo. bills for streetlights.
The outrage by members of the council over the problem surfaced during the last two monthly parish council meetings.
The council has to fork out between $1 million and $1.5 million per month on streetlight bills and it wants to recover the money spent while the majority of the streetlights were not functional.
At this month's meeting of the Trelawny Parish Council on November 13, a motion was passed for the council to seek a rebate from JPSCo.
