MANY OF the island's Parish Councils remain greatly underfunded. This is hampering their ability to deliver essential services such as street lighting, minor water supplies, providing and maintaining parochial roadways and drains and bridges.

There is a shortage of tools, equipment, and office spaces, administrators of the Parish Councils told the The Sunday Gleaner.

Franklin Binns, Superintendent of Roads and Works and Acting Mayor of Spanish Town, said there were some things a parochial authority needed in order to function effectively ­ among them, a mayor's parlour, separate from his or her office, an office for the deputy mayor, and a council chamber or meeting room.

"We would need more equipment to effectively do our road maintenance. We would need to have equipment, for instance, one truck and a roller with a crew of 10 men and a supervisor," he said.

He is also in need of a drop-side tipper body truck, to facilitate road maintenance, with at least a four-man crew in addition to its driver, he said. The equipment is needed to remove landslides and to clean up silt and debris along roadways, he told The Sunday Gleaner.

At present, because it does not have the equipment, the St. Catherine Parish Council delegates the responsibility of fixing roads to others in the form of contracts or task work.

For some Parish Councils, the Government's efforts to provide facelifts for decrepit Parish Council buildings across the island could not have come sooner.

Under the Parish Infrastructure Development Programme (PIDP), which is a joint programme between the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Jamaican Government, US$6.4 million of US$50 million, is to be spent improving the deplorable conditions of Parish Council offices islandwide.

According to Patrick Wong, technical director in the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development, "They (Parish Council buildings) are in a deplorable condition and do not provide proper working environments for staff. A lot of them are historical buildings that we have allowed to deteriorate.

"In St. Ann, they get to the council's chamber through a window because it is easier for the administrative staff to access the building that way."

He pointed out that each council's needs have to be assessed individually because of certain uniqueness. In some cases, he said, that a new structure will have to be built as many existing structures do not allow for modifications because of their heritage.

He told The Sunday Gleaner, "The council must be able to conduct its business without fear of restriction."

St. Ann's Bay Mayor, Charles Tait, agrees. "Of course it is a little cramped. We are generally in need of a council building. In the case of a court day (the council meets on a Thursday which is always a court day) the place is crowded," he said. "With the noise that some politicians make, which is oftentimes anti-court ... we could get into conflicts with them," he said.

The situation is made worse because of the type of structure of the building.

"It is wooden floor. The movement of chairs and feet can disturb the court," he pointed out.

Mr. Wong stated that under the PIDP each council will be equipped with a council chamber which, in the case of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC) and the St. James Parish Council, will accomodate 60 councillors.

For the other Parish Councils it will seat 40 councillors. The councils will also get a caucus room or small meeting room, a mayor's parlour and an office for the deputy mayor.

So far, only two Parish Councils, the KSAC and the St. James Parish Council, have been refurbished under the PIDP while approximately $1.2 million of the $6. 4 million has been spent. Work has begun on the Manchester Parish Council.

In the case of the St. Elizabeth Parish Council, Black River Mayor Daphne Holmes said, "Our council's physical structure is very bad. The administrative office is downstairs the court house."

The St. Elizabeth Parish Council is one of six councils (St. Thomas, St. Ann, Trelawny, Westmoreland and Clarendon are the others) that share a building with the Resident Magistrate Court.

This tradition, in the case of three other parishes, St. Ann, Westmoreland and St. Thomas has made for contentious relationships over the years.

Mayor Holmes gave an illustration. "They were having circuit court upstairs, downstairs they were having Resident Magistrate court. Our staff was talking and a police came to shut up our staff."

Mayor Holmes lamented the need for space and added that it was an embarrassment to describe the state of the parlour which she occupies. When pressed, she described it as antiquated and said that the entire building that housed the council left much to be desired.

She pointed out that the authorities have tried in the past to make it habitable for the staff.

However, the fact that various aspects of the council's operation are scattered all over the town makes for the inefficient use of time, she said.

For example, a part of the Road and Works Department, the Accounts Department and the council's meeting room are housed in separate buildings.

Secretary/Manager for the Westmoreland Parish Council, Patricia Sinclair, when questioned, told The Sunday Gleaner that the disharmonious relationship between that council and the court has culminated in the latter "pushing" them out.

The Westmoreland PC has been renting the Anglican Church Hall for thier monthly meetings as a result.

LAPSES IN MAINTENANCE

Clinton Gordon, Secretary/Manager of the St. Thomas Parish Council spoke about a similiar problem.

"The Council is housed in the same building as the Morant Bay Court House ­ we are on the ground floor," Mr. Gordon explains, adding that "the court floor is our roof and noise from the court disturbs us."

According to him, "There are lapses in the maintenance of courts offices which affect us. When they don't fix their bathroom upstairs, it leaks down here."

Mr. Gordon said that leaks from the courts office destroyed a computer unit in December. The Hanover Parish Council is also in a better position owing to on-going refurbishing exercises. They are also to benefit from the up-grading of Parish Councils across the island under the PIDP programme.