Councillor labels municipal authority as ‘spectator’ amid bad roads Loop Jamaica

Black Immigrant Daily News

People’s National Party (PNP) Councillor for the White Horses Division in the St Thomas Municipal Corporation, Hubert Williams, has upbraided his fellow councillors from both sides of the political aisle for remaining silent about what he described as the dreaded road conditions in the parish.

“We can’t sit down as the local authority and watch this (the bad state of the roads) keep on going on.

“… And if we just sit and be spectators, the people dem nuh need fi vote back fi none a we fi return here!” thundered an impassioned Williams at Thursday’s monthly municipal meeting.

On September 5 and September 6, taxi and bus operators, as well as residents, mounted roadblocks to protest the poor state of some roads in the parish that are affecting students and other commuters traveling to and from areas like Bath, Lyssons, Port Morant, Dalvey, Leith Hall, among other communities in the parish.

The transport operators and residents of the parish have and still blame delays on the ongoing work under the Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project (SCHIP). They said with the project, many roads were dug up and have yet to be paved.

Though the protests have largely stopped, the poor state of the parish’s roads remain, hampering commerce in the parish and leaving residents fuming about the slow pace of travelling throughout the parish or travelling to Kingston, according to an irate Williams.

In highlighting the roadway from Botany Bay to Morant Bay as an example, Williams described it as being “sick” like other roadways in the parish.

“It is sick, and (the municipal) council need to play a greater role in ensuring that the lives and the well-being of the people of the parish are maintained at a level,” the councillor contended.

“I’m coming this morning (Thursday) and there are going to be two trucks and they going to want to load one time.

“Now, we know the road bad already, but at least there has to be some management in terms of what going on the road,” he suggested.

According to Williams, the road situation in West St Thomas, where the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) James Robertson is the Member of Parliament (MP), is just “as bad as over east (St Thomas)”.

He is imploring Robertson to urgently intervene on behalf of residents, as the road situation is also affecting the parish’s economy.

“I am saying the MP needs to manage – get on top of what is going on over west. It is destroying business, (and) commerce is really at the lowest in the parish,” he claimed.

“If you have to go and pick up something in Kingston, it take you the entire day. You can’t come back and do nothing at all. Nothing at all!

“If you lef yuh yard and guh pick up something in the parish capital, it takes you two hours to go and two hours to come. Half of the day done!” asserted Williams.

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