Truck drivers slipping out of Linden without paying toll

Sep 11, 2017 News

– robbing Municipality of revenue while damaging roads

A delivery truck was recently captured live on camera evading the Kara Kara toll booth at Linden after it had made a detour, using the old Kara Kara back road.
Informed sources claimed that it was not the first time that trucks heading into or passing through the mining town were observed doing this.
One resident of Amelia’s Ward said that the trucks frequently pass through the community, instead of using the main thoroughfare leading to the toll booth.
“De smart, when de use the back road de ain’t paying no toll but they disadvantaging the town in two ways, because they robbing the revenue, plus breaking up the road.”
Another resident said that the trucks are too huge to be passing through the community as they damage the roads and are even compromising the foundations of some houses.
“Sometimes when you see these trucks pass, you could feel your house shaking- you would think is earthquake- right now my house got cracks from the constant shaking”.
A few residents are adamant that measures be put in place to stop the trucks from traversing the internal roads in the community.
“Something definitely has to be done because number one they destroying the roads because of their size-when the attempt to turn they are riding on the shoulders of the road breaking it away.
Apart from that, they pose a risk to children and senior citizens who have to use these roadways.”
Many of the trucks and other categories of vehicles were given free reign to traverse Linden without paying a dime, after the toll booth was disbanded by former Minister of Local Government, Norman Whittaker.
It was reactivated late last year.
Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams, who was on hand for the event had noted that its return symbolised the return of “people power” in Linden
Williams said that the Municipality would have lost over $250 M in revenues, since the toll booth was disbanded.
Among those who fought for its reinstitution were former IMC Chairman Orrin Gordon and later Mayor Carwyn Holland.
Minister Williams had said that the toll booth was arbitrarily disbanded by the former administration, and in so doing the Municipality was robbed of vital revenue.
He had pointed out that just after the toll booth’s closure, BaiShanLin started operations, and many of their trucks were passing through Linden, and no toll could be collected from them.
The Kara Kara toll booth was established in 1997 to garner much needed revenue for the Linden Municipality, but was disbanded through an order by then Minister of Local Government Norman Whittaker, in 2013.
According to Whittaker, the toll booth was not gazetted and was therefore operating illegally.
Gordon subsequently pursued every avenue to have the booth reactivated, but his efforts at the time proved futile. However the fight for the return of the booth was continued after Mayor Holland and his new team of councillors was sworn in.
Gordon in earlier interviews had told the media that the toll booth was a crucial revenue earner for the Linden Municipality. Before its suspension, between $2-$3M in revenue was raked in, through the collection of toll on a monthly basis, Gordon had revealed.
Its reactivation had come at a time when the Municipality was in dire need of cash, with a debt burden of some $200mil.

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Truck drivers slipping out of Linden without paying toll

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