As Nicholls wins St Thomas nod, voters want jobs, roads fixed

While residents of St Thomas were celebrating Senator Gregory Nicholls’ decisive win as the Barbados Labour Party’s candidate for the constituency, many were urging him to prioritise fixing deteriorating roads and addressing youth unemployment when the election bell rings.

At the party’s branch meeting at the Lester Vaughan Secondary School on Sunday night, Nicholls soundly trounced his rivals in a three-way primary with 111 votes, while Dr William Chandler received 23 votes, and Anderson Yearwood received 16.

When a Barbados TODAY team visited districts in the central parish on Monday, many people offered congratulations to Nicholls, who will seek to take over the reins from outgoing MP Cynthia Forde.

In Arthur’s Seat, Randolph Forde said it did not matter which candidate was nominated, as he would always vote for the BLP, as that was “his party.”

“I will never vote for anyone else but the Barbados Labour Party,” said Forde. “This is years I have been voting for them, and I will dead voting for them. So it don’t bother me who they put there.”

Jerry Powlett said: “I did not go to the nomination, but he is a man that I know and I glad he get nominated.”

Stating that Senator Nicholls deserved the win, a constituent who gave his name only as Coloured expressed his belief that the senator’s work would lead more young people in the parish to become more active, particularly in the area of sports.

Melrose Road resident Melvin Knight said: “I feel comfortable with it because [Nicholls] was around St Thomas and was a member and president of the St Thomas constituency branch, so it is something I feel good with. All he has to do is do some of the best work and continue to make the constituency happy. … He has to do a lot of ground work.”

Describing some of the roads in the constituency as “ridiculous”, he urged that attention be paid to fixing these.

Saying she felt “wonderful” when Nicholls was nominated as he was the right person for the job, Lorraine Knight of Melrose pointed out that fast-moving traffic and potholes were concerns in her area.

Knight said: “This road leading from Cost-U-Less [at Welches] right up is a problem for me and for the younger people and those walking in the district with traffic passing through, and the potholes. The traffic is travelling through so fast that even for me to cross the road, sometimes I have to wait until ten or 15 cars pass before I can enter the road to go across to get to my house.”

Wishing Nicholls “all the success”, a Shop Hill resident urged the candidate to address the condition of the roads, describing the situation as “bad.”

“You can see how the road stop,” she said. “I had to get my house power-wash up to yesterday. When people come and throw little something on it and the rain come, and all de water splatter back up on de house. Traffic come through, house soak, curtains, everything. Ya can’t even sit in the gallery.”

Glad for the “change,” Roseann Chandler of Downes Gap, Arthur’s Seat, highlighted youth employment, gun crime, the cost of living, and roads as areas that needed addressing in the constituency.

“I want to see all the young people get jobs,” said Chandler. “Tek way de guns and let them get jobs. I want to see groceries go down. It high, high, high. The roads got some big, big holes and where people does be passing, dem getting flat tyres. De road want doing. They only come and do some, but not all the roads that want doing.”

jeniquebelgrave@barbadostoday.bb