Fix deplorable Spring Village road

The Editor, Sir:

We, the residents of Spring Village, express our disgust over the state of the major road leading to our community. The road is in a deplorable condition, and with the hurricane season still on, it promises to get worse.

For years there has been the issue of flooding from the river (Cobourne Gully) that runs parallel to and across the road at a point. On February 9, a heavy-duty excavator was used to pile up the dirt on the river bank, blocking the path of a drain that previously terminated in the river.

After three weeks of excavation work, a Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme (JDIP) sign was erected at the bridge with the inscription 'River Training'. We later learnt from an article in The Gleaner of Wednesday, May 25 that the cost of the three weeks of excavation work was $29 million, according to the National Works Agency (NWA) manager of communication, Stephen Shaw, and that the work was finished.

The JDIP sign has no mention of roadwork. Now we believe that it is grossly unacceptable for us, as a community, to sit and take the dirt that the NWA is dishing out to us. We ask, what has happened to the petrol tax that is supposed to fix roads? Is it because the path to our community is no longer a road but an obstacle course why it's forgotten?

It is unfair for auto parts stores to be getting rich at the expense of the motor vehicle owners and taxi men who risk their lives and those of passengers and the safety of their cars on the Spring Village obstacle course.

It's ironic how roads are fixed in a matter of weeks when Queen Elizabeth II will only drive on it once, and when a by-election is called, as was the case a few months ago in South West St Catherine. The road leading to the Ministry of Education Region Six office, the HEART/NTA Old Harbour Vocational Training Centre, Old Harbour Primary School and Marlie Acres, Glades and Claremont Heights schemes, which are close to the member of parliament's office, has been in a state of disrepair for years, yet only a section in the vicinity of the MP's office was repaired.

Why do communities have to suffer these roadway horrors daily when money can be found to undertake these grand shows?

We have been holding our breath for far too long, and before we die we peacefully ask the NWA and MP Everald Warmington and Mike Henry, the minister of works, to fix the Spring Village main road and to finish the river training. We also use this medium to say to Mr Warmington, please remember that Spring Village is in your constituency.