People living in Lower Burney, St Michael, want to know if their neighbourhood is being turned into a dumping ground.
Since last year, trucks have been dumping old stuff on an elevated piece of unoccupied land in the neighbourhood and residents say it is spoiling the beauty of the area.
A concerned homeowner pointed out that the dumping started around last November/December.
“It started off with them dumping cow itch vines, which to me was a problem. Then I started to see old wood, metal and other garbage being dumped there. This is not right. This is a residential neighbourhood.”
Another said what had him upset was that the men who were dumping had indicated they worked for the National Housing Corporation (NHC), which owned the land.
“This is several acres of . . . land that the Government own, but I do not think it is right for the NHC to be doing this in a residential neighbourhood. This is not what we signed up for. And then they have brought a tractor to cover the garbage with dirt,” he complained.
He added that while other lands in the area had been sold for housing development, that particular piece had been left unoccupied because it was not suitable for housing.
“This is spoiling the beauty of Lower Burney. They complained about what the man [Anderson] Cherry is doing up in St George, and he was ordered to close down his dump because it started to affect residents. I want to know who is going to order Government to close down this.
“I take this road to get home and every time I look ’cross there I get a bad feeling about what is happening. We thought they were going to develop this land for a play park or just plant some trees and flowers on it to beautify the area. We didn’t expect them to use it for garbage.”
A woman said she was also disgusted about the situation.
“I use to be able to see the road from down here, but with the amount of stuff they dump out there, it has totally blocked the view and the mountain is getting higher and higher. That was a nice view; now it is a dumping ground. Nobody from NHC has come to tell us what is going on.”
When a NATION team visited the area last Monday, a tractor was parked on the ground and it appeared the land had been excavated, and some of the garbage buried under the dirt as reported. However, there were small piles of old wood, metal and other discarded material around.
Residents said even private people were now joining in dumping waste on the property. In fact, they reported they were able to capture one of them on camera in the act yesterday, and had called in police for him.
This column was unable to reach NHC general manager, Lanette Napoleon-Young, for a response. (MB)
