#BTEditorial – The good folk of St Andrew deserve better

Bajans have a habit of lambasting the government of the day when things go unattended. In Barbados, the Government is seen as continuous, in that people rarely say the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Government or the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) Government. They simply say: “Government”. They put the blame squarely at the feet of “Government”.

It would be silly for any of the two parties that had the good fortune to govern this country to believe that all complaints come with a political agenda. Truth is, in many cases, people just want relief from whatever ails them, whether it be water woes, bad roads, poor bus service, delayed healthcare or a bad school experience.

Taxpayers expect the Government to deliver. They grow less tolerant when they are faced with decades-old problems.

This week, two of the issues that made headlines in our publication were the Bawdens, St Andrew road which was in disrepair, and the Porey Spring land issue. Both have been concerns for respective residents for years.

All the good folk of St Andrew and St Thomas want are solutions to their problems.

Given that St Thomas has been represented by the ruling BLP for 71 years and, likewise, St Andrew has had a BLP representative for the past 31 years, the complaints can’t be all partisan in nature.

The bridge issue is perennial, more so than the St Thomas land tussle. Because of the ecological and topographical makeup of St Andrew, referred to as the Scotland District, it has had plenty of defective bridges and roads over the years. If this is understood by residents and commuters, how then is there not a sustained road works programme in place for St Andrew?

The broken bridges, on any side, have so many implications and ultimately make life harder for the residents. There was a time in the 1990s when almost every bridge and road to Bawdens, Belleplaine, Shorey Village and St Simons were out at one time. Good planning and management should dictate that we never find ourselves in a similar situation again.

At that time, the Turner’s Hall road was impassable. The road from Sturges, St Thomas to Trio Path was also impassable. The Baxters/Bruce Vale bridge was down. A road built at the back of White Hall simply could not take the weight of loaded sand trucks and buses packed with school children. The St Andrew’s Church and Shorey Village buses were both rerouted through Dark Hole, St Joseph. What a mess it was for residents, students, and teachers who journeyed to the institutions in those locations. Students from the then St Andrew’s Composite, Alleyne School, and the now A DaCosta Edwards Primary had a trying time getting to and from school. The required detours meant the bus rides took much longer.

On Wednesday, the Transport Board announced that the St Andrew’s Church bus will now turn at the bottom of Turner’s Hall and make its way back to town. So, effectively, the St Andrew’s Church bus will not make it to the belly of the parish or to the religious institution whose name it bears. The only bus covering the Bawdens, Walkers, St Simons, Isolation Road, Babylon, and Belleplaine is the Shorey Village bus.

It also means that when school resumes next week for the Trinity term, students, teachers, and ancillary staff from the area would be faced with an additional challenge.

The silver lining, though, was that Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw, who has ministerial responsibility for the Ministry of Transport and Works, confirmed that a temporary bridge would be constructed. Thankfully, Thursday it was.

A press release from the Prime Minister’s Office said: “Personnel from that ministry, assisted by operators and equipment from the Soil Conservation Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Security, installed drainage pipes and a temporary road surface over the riverbed, providing a new access to residents of surrounding districts. The temporary crossing is designed to minimise the chances of the run-off from heavy rainfall damaging it or washing it away.

While the press release announcing the completion of a temporary road spoke to relief for residents, it did not specifically speak to buses’ carrying capacity on that road. We await word from the Transport Board.

Bradshaw also explained that her ministry was actively working towards the reopening of the bridge at Baxters/Bruce Vale. This should be great news to those affected.

According to the PMO’s statement, residents across the Scotland District can also look forward to the start of major road rehabilitation and bridge construction under the China-funded COMPLANT project in the coming weeks.

We intend to hold the Government to these promised road works. After decades of facing the same challenges, the good folk of St Andrew certainly deserve better.