George Henry, Gleaner Writer
SPALDINGS, Clarendon:
THE CLARENDON Parish Council is calling on the Spaldings police to insist that public transport operators who ply the various routes in that area, utilise the transportation centre in that town.
According to Mayor of May Pen Milton Brown, despite efforts made by the Clarendon Parish Council to have the facility constructed, for many years the police in the town are still allowing transport operators to park in the town, while contributing to a serious congestion problem.
"We are not getting the support that we need in Spaldings from the police. We have had meetings with them and the transport operators are still being allowed to park on the streets, as well as pick up and drop off passengers on the streets," said Mayor Brown.
He stated that the Clarendon Parish Council spent huge sums to have an area close to a service station in the town properly paved before Christmas last year, resulting in one of the largest parking facilities for public transportation in the island. But it is not being properly used.
Mr. Brown said transport operators need to be forced off the street and made to operate from the new facility, to ease the problem of traffic congestion in the town centre, but without the cooperation of the police not much will be achieved.
Brown said despite the police approaching the Clarendon Parish Council to have several no-parking signs installed in the town, nothing happens whenever vehicles park close to the signs and load their vehicles.
When The Gleaner contacted the inspector in charge of the Spaldings police, Keith Allison, he said it is not that the police in that town have not been trying to have the transport operators use the new facility, but that because of a lack of personnel it is difficult to handle.
Allison said transport operators are refusing to use the transportation centre because the facility lacks a few things, including shelter and toilet facilities. He also said the police would have liked to clamp vehicles that are operating from the town centre as taxis and mini-buses but the absence of no-parking signs did not give officers the power to do so.
