St Joseph Road Repairs Addressed Amid Citizen Concerns | Prime Minister Mia Mottley Assures Progress

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.”

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.”