AFTER HOURS of heated debate, the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation's (KSAC) Roads and Traffic Committee yesterday granted approval for $9.9 million to be allocated to drain cleaning exercises in 28 divisions across the Corporate Area.
All Jamaica Labour Party(JLP) members present voted in favour, while all the minority People's National Party(PNP) members voted against the exercise that will see emergency work being done on drains in preparation for water damage during this hurricane season.
Mayor of Kingston Desmond McKenzie who had announced the exercise as his first task after being sworn in, spent time explaining to irate PNP councillors that the selection was non-partisan, and in fact represented a fairer balance than seen in previous times.
Fifteen of the divisions identified for cleaning are JLP, with the remaining 13 being PNP.
Yesterday reports from the City Engineer's Department suggested that technical officers had gone to the 40 divisions and identified the most needy.
These include areas in Tivoli Gardens, Allman Town, Norman Gardens, Duhaney Park, Hagley Park, Maxfield Park, Vineyard Town and Mavis Bank.
Mayor McKenzie also announced plans to meet with Finance Minister Omar Davies, to discuss strategies for the council to increase its revenue.
He said that the Finance Minister had written to him, stating that the KSAC was not earning enough from property taxes and parochial revenue funds.
New proposals include tapping into the system of the revenue department and putting systems in place to ensure that motorists who have traffic fines cannot license, insure or have fitness tests done on their vehicles if there are unpaid parking tickets.
