Dysfunctional street lights worry residents in Clarendon

Jermaine Francis

Gleaner Writer

MOCHO, Clarendon:

RESIDENTS OF Mocho and Chapelton want the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) to immediately repair dysfunctional street lights in their communities.

"The lights are not working, and the ones that do work are malfunctioning, and the community cannot be safe without these lights. Even the lights at some of the crossroads, where people come out at night-times are not working and JPS needs to do something about it," Condetta Simpson, a resident of Mocho Road, told The Gleaner earlier this week.

Councillor of the Mocho division, Helen Simpson, said she has brought the matter to the attention of the Clarendon Parish Council on several occasions, but nothing has been done to address the problem.

Meanwhile, Floret Stewart, councillor of the Chapelton division, said the lack of street lights renders the communities unsafe, and as such many of the residents were fearful of using some of the streets during the nights.

new lights

"We need new lights and the old ones need to be repaired quickly. On several occasions I have asked for these lights to be fixed. Some are not working completely, others blink on and off, the shades on some of these lamps are gone and there are a few that JPS came and looked at about six months ago and nothing happened," she added.

Stewart said the parish council conducted a survey and found that Chapelton was one of the darkest divisions in the parish. As such, she joined Simpson in urging JPS to rectify the problem.

Meanwhile, Ruthlyn Johnson, corporate communications officer at JPS, told The Gleaner this week that there was no record of malfunctioning street lights in Chapelton and Mocho. However, she noted that the light and power company would address the complaints.

"The team in Clarendon has made a commitment to conduct a patrol in the communities on Friday, December 10 ... . They will then carry out repairs on whatever legitimate street lights that are malfunctioning within the communities by next Friday, December 17."

Johnson