Trucks are seen stopped in the road adjacent to the Préfecture on Tuesday. (Radio St. Martin photo)
MARIGOT--A protest took place in Marigot Tuesday morning by private transporters of waste who have been denied access at the eco-landfill in Grand Cayes, Cul-de-Sac, to drop off, since the landfill closed on July 11 due to the site reaching a saturation point.
Around a dozen trucks gathered at the Galisbay car park before driving to the Collectivité and Préfecture in protest. The objective was to obtain emergency meetings. A message spray painted onto the front of one truck read “We need help President.” President Mussington is currently in Paris.
An initial exchange took place in the car park with Vice President Bernadette Davis and other Collectivité officials. The protest is being supported by the Public Works Association, “Bâtiment Travaux Publiques” (BTP).
“There was an order from the Préfecture to the Collectivité to not transport waste to the dump because it is saturated. However, it was then decided to use different areas of the site to drop off waste but only for the official workers for the Collectivité, and not for the people who do private trucking from worksites and private properties. They are no longer admitted to the site,” explained BTP Vice President Franck Viotty.
“The problem for the private truckers is that they are not honouring their obligations and contracts and subsequently cannot be paid by the people they are working for while garbage is piling up with nowhere to put it.
“Ten days ago we wrote to the Collectivité on behalf of the private truckers to have an urgent meeting to find a solution, but we have heard nothing,” Viotty added. “That prompted us to put waste skips in front of the Collectivité and Préfecture last night as a message. It seems neither the Collectivité nor the Préfecture want to take responsibility, or they say the management of the landfill should sort it out.
“We finally did talk to the President who is in France and told him the subjects we want to discuss and he agreed to a meeting when he gets back, Thursday or Friday. That said, tomorrow, Wednesday there is a meeting with the Préfet on the subject and we (our delegation) will be on standby waiting for the result.”
According to Viotty, a year and a half ago an extra holding area or a basin was created at the eco-site with capacity to last two to three years, but after 24 hours it was already full and there was no authorisation to create any more space.
