Hanover councillors demand NSWMA action as garbage backlog fuels rat concerns

Councillors at Thursday's meeting of the Hanover Municipal Corporation sharply criticised garbage collection in the parish, saying waste left across communities has contributed to a growing rat problem.

Andrea Dehaney-Grant, deputy mayor of Lucea and councillor for the Sandy Bay division, said Hanover was fortunate that public health officials had not identified more leptospirosis cases. She was chairing the sitting in the absence of Mayor Sheridan Samuels when the discussion followed the tabling of the National Solid Waste Management Authority's May report.

The NSWMA report said garbage had not been collected in 31 districts during May, with 14 of those communities listed in Hanover Eastern and 17 in Hanover Western. Councillors, however, disputed whether the figures captured the full scale of the problem, arguing that several more communities were affected because trucks were mainly clearing waste along major roads.

Dehaney-Grant challenged NSWMA representatives over repeated explanations that collection units were out of service. She asked why Hanover could not be provided with two new trucks to help clear garbage across the parish.

She also linked the issue to taxpayers' expectations, saying Hanover is usually among the top three parishes for property tax payments and that garbage removal is one of the services funded by those revenues. Dehaney-Grant added that a rodent-control programme started months ago by the Ministry of Health and Wellness, through the Hanover Public Health Department, was being weakened because garbage was not being removed.

One councillor said residents had begun creating new illegal dumping areas because approved disposal points were not being cleared. Another councillor said complaints that once focused on bad roads had now shifted to the garbage crisis.

Dehaney-Grant said she could not remember the HMC ever having a discussion with the NSWMA in which councillors were able to praise the agency for keeping communities clean. She said that pattern appeared to have existed long before she joined the corporation, while the authority continued to point to faulty trucks.

The deputy mayor said she saw no immediate answer to the problem and suggested that the fleet serving Hanover appeared to be old. She said that from the Chester Castle division to the Green Island division, at the opposite end of the parish, communities across the municipal divisions were burdened by garbage.

She argued that rat bait alone could not solve the infestation while waste remained in neighbourhoods. Dehaney-Grant said other organisations in Hanover were trying to raise their standards, but she accused the NSWMA of moving in the wrong direction.

Sharmaine Anderson Gayle, president of the Hanover Chamber of Commerce, also attended the meeting and said the chamber was concerned about the garbage situation. She said the organisation would write to Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie and the head of the NSWMA about the matter.