More than 1,500 to be employed in Parish Council Christmas programme

Work is expected to begin next week to spruce up all 22 divisions of the Clarendon Parish Council for the Christmas, an exercise that will put more than 1,500 persons to work.

The Clarendon Parish Council will be allocating a total of $23,953,000 for its 2015 Christmas work programme in the parish.

Secretary Manager Rowhan Blake told The Gleaner the focus will be on the cleaning of some critical drains in all 22 divisions.

The budget allocated for the drain cleaning is $6 million.

According to Blake, the bulk of the work, however will be on beautification, bushing and routine maintenance, plus patching of roadways.

"The budget targeted for that will be $17, 953,000," said Blake.

Work starts next week

Blake pointed out that employment will be within the communities and will be given out on a nonpartisan basis. Work is expected to commence next week, and will see about 1,500 persons being employed.

"We will be employing about 60 to 80 persons from each of the 22 divisions," he informed.

The Clarendon Parish Council will also be spearheading other projects that are being funded by the Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme and the Tourism Enhancement Fund for the Christmas season, and that will see additional employment for persons.

"Those are projects that were applied for by their respective members of parliament and parish councillors, and were approved," he pointed out, adding that a lot of those projects have to do with beautification of green spaces and cleaning of areas.