Amid rising pressure from St Joseph residents to fix their roads, Prime Minister Mia Mottley and other Cabinet officials have declared that everything is being done to repair existing roads and address myriad difficulties with land slippage in and around the Scotland District.
This promise came after the rural residents expressed dissatisfaction with their roads during Wednesday’s St Joseph Speaks town hall.
The state of the roads was the main topic of the night for several residents, including Marylin Cooke from Branchberry, who said constituents had long grown tired of hearing the promises of action and pleaded for significant action to take place.
“I’ve heard all of what you have said,” she declared to the town hall. “I tired hearing the talk, we need some roads, plain and simple. While the grass growing, the horse starving. To whom much is given, much is expected. We have never given the Barbados Labour Party a patch seat; I tired of the patching because the patching does make you skid when you coming up the hills when the road [is] wet. I don’t drive, I am a pedestrian, and I … skid when I [am] going up Braggs Hill when the rain fall. We seriously need our roads fixed…. I am tired of the long talk.”
Prime Minister Mia Mottley strongly defended the government’s track record in the area, saying that despite the need for significant road improvements all over the country, work needed to be done in a measured way if the government was to keep the island’s finances in check.
“I need you to understand that the failure to do all of these roads all at once is not out of contempt for you or for the people of St Joseph, or St Andrew, or St Michael, or St James, or Christ Church. It is about being able to do things in a balanced, measured way,” she told the audience.
“…. As long as I got control of anything to be able to do with the policies, I am not putting us in a position where the country is going to be put on the edge again, such that 5 000, 2 000, 10 000 people’s lives are at risk with respect to restructuring of the debt.”
She added: “The old people taught us that a little with content is great gain, but I want to be ambitious and do a lot with content. A lot still does not mean a lot at once.”
Marylin Cooke, a resident of Branchberry, St Joseph.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Works Santia Bradshaw attempted to ease residents’ concerns by explaining why some roadwork delays in the parish were occurring.
“It was difficult to do roads within St Joseph because of the issues with slippage, and in many cases, we have to do the designs on the roads before you can actually move to full rehabilitation. You have to do a topographical survey, you have to move to preliminary designs, and that involves the input of a number of different entities to be able to weigh into that process. Then you get to the detailed design stage, then the project actually goes to tender and the selection of contractors then to be able to do the construction of the road.”
She added that discussions with the China National Complete Plant Import Export Corporation (COMPLANT) and other entities tasked with doing work in the area were long in their advanced stages.
“If you take Tent Bay, that particular road is on the coastline. What we recognised is that we had to look to have a discussion with Coastal [Zone Management Unit (CZMU)] before any determination could be made as to how we proceed. We also discovered that [CZMU] apparently had a study done in terms of a design for the road previously. So the COMPLANT team and the technical team are currently in discussions with [CZMU] to be able to look at whether the design that previously existed, if there needs to be any modifications or if it can be used in its form,” she explained.
She insisted that rehabilitative works on several roads in the parish will soon commence.
“You have Mellowes Hill . . . We actually had to do a temporary bypass because a side of the road had actually just fallen away. That road is actually being designed, that is the one that actually fell into the category of emergency works along with Melvin Hill, and we had to move that up the ladder in terms of priority. If you take Braggs Hill and Airy Hill, we are actually at the preliminary design stage.
“As it relates to Spa Hill, this was another emergency situation where recently we had slippage there in what we would call the belly of the actual hill. We were able to do some temporary repairs on that slope, and we are on the preliminary design stage for Spa Hill. MTW has commenced some works so as to allow the persons who live in that area to be able to access it from either side. The Sugar Hill/Laynes Bridge area . . . is actually at the detailed design stage, so that is more advanced. I am hoping that would be one of the next roads that we will be able to commence relatively soon.
“I can’t give you a specific timeline, but [I can] assure you that works are being prioritised for St Joseph,” the transport and works minister said.
