ST ANN, Claremont – Taxi drivers plying the St Ann's Bay to Claremont route in St Ann are planning another demonstration for Wednesday following Monday's protest against poor road conditions, especially between Higgin Town and Claremont.
The roadblock on Monday prompted Member of Parliament for South East St Ann, Lisa Hanna, to issue a press release demanding answers about the $30 million allocation to fix the road.
Hanna said taxi operators and residents of the area blocked the corridor to express frustration at the failure of government and the National Works Agency (NWA) to fix the roads as promised from June 2021.
“On June 29, 2021, I received formal communication from the St. Ann NWA parish manager that $30 million was finally allocated to fix sections of this road,” Hanna said in the release.
“It is now over six months, and still, no one from the ministry or the NWA can tell us when the work will begin and, worse, if a contractor has been selected to do the job. I am calling on the Government to publicly address this matter as we are being kept in the dark, and we are seeing other major roads being fixed in adjoining constituencies.”
DRIVERS ISSUE ULTIMATUM
On Tuesday, a driver plying the route blamed both the government and the MP for not having the road fixed.
“The government and the MP, di two a dem fi blame because we a pay fi license; the car dem licence and insure, so weh di money wha dem collect? Tomorrow we a block it again,” he declared.
“We gi unnu 48 hours from yesterday, if we nuh get no good talk by this evening, ah mawnin it a block back, which is right.”
Another driver issued a similar warning, telling The Gleaner: “If people don't get some form of argument in di next 44 hours, we gwine come back out come do the same thing an' maybe worse.”
He added, “The road very bad, man. That is the reason why yesterday we come out and do wha wi haffi do because this yah road now, a decade now, so we waa know wha a gwaan.”
Efforts to get an update from Hanna on Tuesday were unsuccessful.
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