St James councillors press JPS over unrepaired streetlights and payments

St James councillors are calling on Jamaica Public Service to account for streetlights they say remain unrepaired after Hurricane Melissa, with Montego Bay Mayor Richard Vernon proposing a collective restoration request.

The Gleaner’s October 12 report covers the St James Municipal Corporation meeting held on October 8. The complaints concern damage from the previous year’s hurricane, rather than a new storm or a newly completed assessment of every streetlight in the parish.

Vernon asked councillors to identify all posts without lights in their divisions, whether damaged by Melissa or unlit for another reason. They are to obtain forms from the corporation’s chief executive officer’s office so the council can compile one request for St James.

The mayor said the request would go to the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development to support dialogue with JPS. He argued that the utility should respond to the council’s direction because councillors confront the problems in their communities daily.

Welcome Hall councillor Martin Kellier said roughly 200 streetlights in his division were destroyed during Melissa and had not been replaced. He described reports of continuing darkness, particularly around schools, and mounting complaints about the lack of streetlighting.

Kellier also questioned why payments were continuing for lights that were not working. The account attributes that concern to him; it does not provide billing records, quantify those payments or carry a JPS response resolving the complaint.

Mount Salem councillor Kerry Thomas said streetlighting was a safety and security function that should not require repeated appeals from communities. He referred to a government-approved J$24 billion loan to JPS intended to accelerate post-Melissa power-grid restoration.

The Gleaner placed the latest complaints against earlier installation and repair plans. It reported that Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie said in March 2026 that JPS would resume its streetlight programme after the disruption caused by the hurricane.

During his 2025-26 Sectoral Debate presentation, McKenzie had announced an additional 22,800 streetlights over two years, with each of Jamaica’s 228 municipal divisions to receive 50 new lights annually.

The planned new installations and the replacement of damaged lights are related service questions, but the announced national totals do not establish how many of Welcome Hall’s damaged lights have been repaired.

The next proposed action is the council’s unified request through the local-government ministry. No confirmed restoration timetable or completed repair outcome is supplied in the report.