‘Talking trash’ . . . DLP: ‘Enough of optics, chat’ on garbage pileups

The Democratic Labour Party’s (DLP) environment spokesman Andre Worrell has castigated the Mia Mottley administration for feeding the country “empty promises” about garbage trucks, saying it has delivered mere “optics and chat” about “monumental” garbage problems.

Charging that mounds of garbage decorated the fronts of homes in Barbados and the sides of the street the last weekend before Christmas, Worrell demanded action from the Sanitation Service Authority and Minister of Environment Trevor Prescod to bring relief to the country with islandwide collections.

In a scathing statement, Worrell, who claimed that Prescod had been noticeably silent, questioned whether “the Minister  been gagged since his promise to hire prison inmates to collect garbage?

He added: “Why is the Prime Minister continually speaking?

“Why did he not insist that every community receive a garbage collection last weekend with a second collection on or before Christmas Eve? That is how we managed.”

Worrell, a former senator, also demanded answers on promised garbage trucks.

“Has anyone seen evidence of the promised new trucks which were due in Barbados by early November?

“Has anyone benefitted from increased garbage collection from the new garbage trucks which the Prime Minister announced were in the port during her speech on November 30th?

“Have they, too, fallen victim to delays in Customs due to the costly implementation blunders of the Ascycuda World System?”

On Monday, Prime Minister Mottley after a tour of Pot House, St John, where she also expressed concern that garbage continues to block drains across the island, and urged Barbadians to stop littering, announced that another ten garbage trucks would arrive by the end of this week.

Another ten are also scheduled to arrive by early 2020.

But an unconvinced Worrell was adamant that the DLP had a better handle on the garbage situation while it was in office, saying the party had “purchased trucks in November 2013, older trucks were patched and workers were rostered accordingly.”

He stressed that while Government was raking in increased tax revenue and boasting of reaching International Monetary Fund benchmarks, citizens were suffering a decline in social services.

Worrell said: “This Government is taking in more tax revenue than any other Government before.

“We have so far paid $70 million dollars for a garbage collection service and we have seen no measure of improvement. Not even a single truck.

“Higher taxes on fuel; foreign exchange taxes; increased fees for barrels; 75 per cent increase in bus fare; VAT still at 17.5 per cent.

“We have paid in our hard-earned cash for more than a year and all we have received from this Government is hot air, photos and a gathering of rats.

We have had enough of the optics and chat,” he said.
sandydeane@barbadostoday.bb