MoBay city council makes first official tour
THE Montego Bay City Council had its first tour of the city this week and has identified several areas that need immediate attention. But president Gerard Mitchell has opted to keep their plan of action close to his chest — at least for now.
“We have arrived at a course of action for a number of these areas that have been visited and you will be advised in due course,” Mitchell told the Observer.
He said the council’s plans for the area would be documented and the media “advised in due course”.
Areas visited by the tour party included the Municipal Dump at Retirement and Parish Council-owned lands at Bogue. The team also examined the repairs being done to the South Gully, which was damaged during the recent flood rains.
“We did a tour of the South Gully to identify some deficiencies there and we hope to have the National Works Agency address those,” Mitchell said after the tour. “As a result of the flood, recently, there has been some level of erosion and there is going to be need to do some additional work to capture some of the water flowing on the base.”
The team also visited the Providence Heights site in Flankers where the infrastructure is now being put in for the Relocation 2000 project. More than 300 residents will be removed from the depressed Railway Gardens community and provided with homes in Flankers.
According to Mitchell, this project was moving apace. “It is coming along,” he said. “I think some of the infrastructure work is far advanced and I think that very shortly they should be in a position to start construction,” he added.
The city council was established to concentrate on matters within the immediate city limits and a part of its mandate is to fast track solutions to problems that have evaded the local authority for years.