Mystery street lights found in Trelawny - JPS

Christopher Thomas, Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

The Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS) says many of the street lights mounted in Trelawny may have been stolen from other parishes in western Jamaica.

A recent audit report, which was shared at the Trelawny Parish Council's monthly meeting last Thursday, says Trelawny has 603 more street lights for which the Trelawny Parish Council has not been paying.

The lights are not recorded as ever been installed in Trelawny.

"What we have found out is that there are 21 per cent more lights in the parish than we have been billing for, so we have been billing for 2,818 lights, but the audit shows that there are at least 3,421 lights," said T'Shura Gibbs of the JPS.

"What we have been seeing is that street lights are being stolen from one location to another, or sold from one location to another, even across parishes, and this could account for this (increase)," Gibbs added.

"We can speculate (that) there has to be some collusion somewhere, and there have to be people stealing street lights from one location and selling them to another, and it's obvious that we have lights from outside the parish, coming into the parish."

However, Gibbs was hesitant to declare that anyone affiliated with the JPS could be involved in the illegal relocation of street lights.

"There is an assumption that these lights are put up by the JPS, and we do not know that for a fact, but it is a crime. These lights are being stolen, and it is a crime that should be reported to the police," said Gibbs.

The revelation in the JPS audit comes months after chairman of the Hanover Parish Council, Shernet Haughton, asserted that JPS contractors were illegally removing street lights from sections of the Green Island division in that parish.

"Some JPS contractors are hustling the street lights that were intended to benefit Hanover residents, and they should stop it," Haughton had alleged in June.